


Inescapable

by LittleRedTepheee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Magic, F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 21:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 42,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3666642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRedTepheee/pseuds/LittleRedTepheee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing turns out how he expected when Scorpius Malfoy sits under the sorting hat, and it will lead to an unexpected friend with problems of her own. Alliances are formed, Slytherins are cunning, Gryffindors are brash, and the drama doesn't end with the school year.</p><p>Scorpius snorted at the long line of nervous first years. There was nothing to worry about, everyone already knows what house they’ll end up in, even if they won’t admit it to themselves. He was his father’s son and he was going to be just like him, house and all.<br/>The sorting hat sang a little song, fairly upbeat, the world was at peace of course. It took a while, since he was half way down the alphabet, but soon enough it was Scorpius’ turn under the hat. It settled down over his head and he could hear it humming to itself.<br/>“Well, this is different, quite different, yes. I’m sensing a lot of bravery, and a strong sense of fairplay and honour. How interesting for a Malfoy. Not expected at all.”<br/>“What are you talking about? I’m Slytherin through and through!” Scorpius thought back.<br/>“Yet, you aren’t! Tough luck!”<br/>GRYFFINDOR!!!!<br/>Scorpius couldn’t move. His face was frozen in shock. No one was clapping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> I spent too much time daydreaming about Hogwarts and decided I had to sit down and write this. This is my what if... :)
> 
> A big thanks to my cousin for finding all my weird sentences, missing words, and spelling errors! You're a lifesaver :)
> 
> Standard "I don't own Harry Potter, I'm not JK Rowling" Disclaimer

**Scorpius**

Scorpius snorted at the long line of nervous first years. There was nothing to worry about, everyone already knows what house they’ll end up in, even if they won’t admit it to themselves. He was his father’s son and he was going to be just like him, house and all.

The sorting hat sang a little song, fairly upbeat, the world was at peace of course. It took a while, since he was half way down the alphabet, but soon enough it was Scorpius’ turn under the hat. It settled down over his head and he could hear it humming to itself.

“Well, this is different, quite different, yes. I’m sensing a lot of bravery, and a strong sense of fairplay and honour. How interesting for a Malfoy. Not expected at all.”

“What are you talking about? I’m Slytherin through and through!” Scorpius thought back.

“Yet, you aren’t! Tough luck!”

GRYFFINDOR!!!!

Scorpius couldn’t move. His face was frozen in shock. No one was clapping.

 

**Elena**

Elena stared at the small, blonde boy frozen on the stool. How in the world did a Malfoy end up in Gryffindor? Had the sorting hat gone MAD? Thank goodness it had waited to break until she had gotten properly sorted, she really wouldn’t have been able to explain away something like that to her father. He’d have been.....well, it wouldn’t have been good. Professor Chang nudged the boy and he walked slowly towards the Gryffindor table amidst a smattering of polite applause. Elena hardly watched the rest of the sorting, she just stared at Malfoy, his already pale face drained of color and set in a rather sullen expression.

 

**Three weeks later...**

 

The corridor was fairly empty this time of the evening with everyone in the Great Hall having dinner. Elena was finishing up a roll as she walked, not having had time to linger at dinner tonight. She had to keep up with the reading her father had sent her and practice the new transfiguration spells from class. Thank heavens she already knew all the basics she was learning in class or she was certain her brain would explode.

“Oi! What are you slinking around here for?” She heard echo down from a nearby hallway. For a moment she thought they were talking to her, but then she saw them. Three third years from Slytherin with their wands held menacingly at their sides. Scorpius Malfoy was backed up against the wall with a stubborn expression on his face.

“Little Gryffindors shouldn’t be wandering the halls alone, but I guess you’re always alone aren’t you blood traitor?”

Malfoy tried to strike first, throwing out a stun spell, but the bully seemed ready for it. He knocked him down, sneering at him.

“Already tried that trick, you’ll have to come up with something new.”

Elena slipped quietly behind the group, catching Malfoy’s eye briefly, but none of the others noticed she was there. She pointed in the direction she had just come from, hoping Malfoy was understanding what she was telling him. Quick as she could, Elena hit one of the suits of armour down the hall in the opposite direction with a jelly-legs jinx, causing the bullies to look up startled, then shot out a bat bogey hex at each of them. Malfoy was up and running before she had gotten two spells off. She followed right behind him, pushing herself to catch up. They careened around the corner at the same time, the older boys chasing after them now.

“NO RUNNING IN THE CORRIDORS!” Shouted Filch as he spotted them. Elena slowed to a walk, grabbing Malfoy’s arm to force him to slow down as well, at the same time the others came tearing around the corner as fast as they could.

“DETENTION! Detention for you brats!” Filch said storming past Elena and Malfoy to the now thwarted bullies. Malfoy followed her back towards the Great Hall where students were still filtering out after dinner.

“I guess you are a Gryffindor through and through, brave but dumb as a rock,” she said.

Scorpius glared at her. “I didn’t need your help, and I certainly don’t need your insults.”

“I’m just saying you apparently shouldn’t be wandering the halls alone. Stick with your Gryffindor friends in the common room.”

“What friends?” He sneered at her. “I’m a Malfoy, no one in Gryffindor would come near me with a ten foot pole. And I don’t want them to either.”

“Can’t blame you there. I’m Elena Hunt by the way,” she said sticking out her hand.

  
She stuck by him for the next few weeks until they fell into a rhythm. They studied together, wandered the grounds exploring everything they could, and chatted about everything from Quidditch to Divination. It was the two of them against both their houses. He learned quickly to not ask her many questions, that if he was quiet when she studied, sometimes she would lend him one of the advanced books she always had hidden in her little hand bag. They practiced together, dueling in their free time, getting faster and learning things you could never get from a book. They became rather like brother and sister, in the best way. He was, of course, a complete outcast from Gryffindor by the time second year rolled around, and she was warily ignored by Slytherin. Elena had never cared to make friends, she just needed one. That’s what her father had told her, find one person you can make count on you, someone that will come if you call, someone you can manipulate. Scorpius was perfect, he was lonely and he had something to prove. If she ever needed him to break the rules and prove he wasn’t a little goody two-shoes, she knew he would.


	2. Opportunities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into the past, right after the war has ended.

**Sebastian**

 

**May 3, 1998**

 

Sebastian Hunt knew an opportunity  when he saw one, and an eagle hawk carrying a letter  with the Malfoy seal was definitely just that. Lucius Malfoy contacted him less than 24 hours after the war ended in defeat for the Death Eaters knowing it might only be a matter of hours before the aurors came to arrest him.

Hunt had to wait only moments after knocking for the thick door to swing open and a shivering house elf to escort him inside. As he walked he could see evidence of fighting and dark magic in every room. The place stank of decay.

Finally arriving in a dimly lit sitting room he could see that the manor wasn’t the only thing in shambles. The Lord Malfoy had dark circles under his eyes and his robes were torn. He looked old, weak, and exhausted. Sebastian could see Lady Malfoy hovering in the doorway, but their son and heir was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had fallen during the fighting?

“You said you had some items you wished to sell?” Sebastian prompted.

Lucius snorted at his wording, but motioned towards the pile of family heirlooms on the table nonetheless. “Some of these items have been in the family for generations, they are extremely valuable.”

“Mmmm,  somewhat valuable. No one is putting much stock in blood lines at the moment, and everyone will be trying to sell items of this nature, not buy them.”

“I will not take less than they are worth,” Lucius said angrily.

“Of course not! I am hoping to develop a beneficial relationship with a family like the Malfoys, regardless of present,” he paused for a breath. “...circumstances. I always look to the future in these sorts of transactions, and I am sure your family will recover as it always has,” Sebastian said with a smile as he looked over another item. “I think I can give you two-hundred galleons for the lot.”

“That is a ridiculously low offer,” Lucius objected. At that moment, Draco Malfoy pushed past his mother and saw what was on the table.His face was pale and he looked a bit crazed.

“What are you doing?” He asked his father angrily.

“I am getting rid of some things I don’t need the aurors seeing. Go back to your room!” He hissed at his son.

“Those things need to be destroyed!”

“We need money more than we need your new found morality right now. Shut your mouth and leave the room.”

Sebastian watched them both carefully, not wanting to get caught up in a familial squabble. The whole exchange was a waste of time.

“Will you take the 200 galleons, or not?” He prompted.

“Anything less than 400 galleons is robbery.”

“300 galleons is my final offer.”

"Fine, just hand over the galleons and get out," he muttered as Draco began objecting to the whole proceeding once again.

Sebastian interrupted him, really not wanting to listen to his whining and preaching.

“This is it? Nothing else you are interested in relocating before the aurors rip this moldy old place apart?” The Death Eaters losing this war was the best thing that could have happened from his point of view. The cowards were all unloading their best possessions before the searches began. It was hard, after all, to claim you were imperiused if your basements were filled with dark artifacts that you could trace back to your Great Uncle Ferguson.

“There is nothing left,” Malfoy said before turning away and dragging his son from the room with his little bag of galleons.

“Give me a call if you ever need to buy some of this back,” Sebastian shouted after him.

Oh how far the mighty fall, Sebastian thought as he strolled from the room whistling a tune he had heard on the muggle radio a few days before.


	3. All Is Fair in Love and War?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some romances just don't start off smoothly.

**Year Six**

**Elena**

“You’re staring again.”

Scorpius cleared his throat self-consciously. “I wasn’t staring.”

“You could just man up and go ask her out.”

Scorpius closed his Arithmancy book suddenly. “She’s going to say no. Laugh in my face. Hex me, most likely with something nasty. She’s really good with hexes.” He narrowed his eyes as he spoke. With a sigh he shook his head and leaned back against the tree.

Elena laughed at him. Rose Weasley was good with hexes, she was good with everything.

“You are going to be absolutely miserable company until you just get it over with. I swear I’ll Imperio you if you don’t talk to her today. Go get it over with.”

Scorpius stood up abruptly. “You’re bloody serious aren’t you?”

“Of course I am.” She said waving a placating hand at him. “It’s for the best. You’ll thank me later.”

Elena looked up and could tell Scorpius seriously doubted that, but he was also watching Rose again. She had finally stood up and waved her good-byes to the little gathering of Potters and Weasleys and gone off to study, just as she did every weekend. The girl was sadly predictable, and probably a little boring, but Scorpius always stared after her as though she was the most fascinating person he had ever laid eyes on. At least he apparently valued intelligence, if he had started acting like all the rest of the idiot boys this year, chasing after every pretty face he saw, she’d have been sorely disappointed. Scorpius was reasonably attractive, though he always wore that look of arrogance on his face that he had inherited from his father, at least while he was in public. Elena understood now why the hat had put Scorpius in Gryffindor, he was fearless, but worse than that he just didn’t have that drive to rise above everyone else. The arrogance was an act. Just as well, it never hurt for your allies to be reliable, fearless, and not always looking to stab you in the back.

“If you find a newt frantically pawing at your door later, you know what happened.” He muttered darkly as he set off after the elusive Rose. Elena waited until he was well away before she pulled out the letter that an unfamiliar owl had dropped off a few hours earlier. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she read. This wasn’t good news at all. With a quick brush of her wand the letter was burnt, the ashes floating lazily away in the breeze.

 

**James**

James wouldn’t have noticed Malfoy getting up to stalk after Rose with an angry look on his face if he hadn’t been staring at the Slytherin girl, but that was beside the point. Surely the creep wouldn’t do anything to Rose...would he? He probably wasn’t even following her, even if he had been staring at Rose more often than was strictly normal. James stood up quickly, thinking better safe than sorry, and besides, he wouldn’t mind an excuse to punch that sneering brat in the face. Godric knows how he had ended up in Gryffindor.

“I just remembered I forgot something. I’ll be right back,” James said hurriedly before loping off after Rose and Malfoy. Rose always went to her usual spot, hidden in one of the corridors no one ever visited in some forgotten old room with outdated textbooks. Typical Rose.

James was stopped briefly by a friend, but he hurried along as quickly as he could, a knot of worry in his stomach. Just as he reached the door, he paused, he could hear them inside.

“No, please don’t...” He heard Rose half shout. Bloody hell! He should have gotten here sooner! He barreled through the door, anger shoving out all thought. Malfoy had Rose pushed up against a shelf, hands on either side of her face, her hands gripping his arms, and he was bloody kissing her!

“Get off her Malfoy!” He shouted. Malfoy jumped back, his face going paler than normal and Rose turning a spectacular shade of red. Without hesitation he cast a spell knocking Malfoy back against a wall, his wand dropping out of his hand with the force of the impact.

“James! No!”

“Ascendio!” He shouted at Malfoy, watching his body lift high into the air before dropping him. There was a sickening crack and Malfoy let out a strangled yell.

“Ascendio!” He yelled again as anger blurred out any hesitation, Malfoy cried out louder this time, his arm snapping around at a weird angle. Rose grabbed his arm, shouting at him to stop, but he hated Malfoy so much. That creep, how dare he try to hurt his cousin! Without warning he felt his body go stiff and he fell face forward. The Slytherin girl darted forward, slowly lowering Malfoy.

She leaned over him and muttered something quietly, the only thing he could hear was Malfoy’s sighed thank-you as she helped Malfoy stand. Rose rushed over to them, tears running down her face.

“Scorpius I’m so sorry, I don’t know why he...”

“Not your fault, I should have done something.” He actually looked embarrassed.

James could suddenly move again, and he shot to his feet. “Why were you kissing her? I heard her say no!”

Rose’s blush went from red to purple in an instant. “No, that’s not....I was....he was....oh god...” She took a deep breath. “I was saying please don’t leave. I wanted him to kiss me you brain addled wanker!”

James stared at her, dumbfounded.

“You two get out of here, I’ll handle James.” James barely registered the very dangerous look on her face before Rose and Malfoy left the room. He opened his mouth the say something when the door slammed shut and he found himself slammed up against the wall.

“You broke his arm. Was that fun James Potter?”

“I didn’t mean to break it!” He retorted angrily as the last few moments came back in a rush that left him feeling a little sick at what he’d done.

He felt his body go weightless and he was against the ceiling looking down on a very, very angry girl. Her grey eyes were practically sparking, her black hair thrown back from her face.

“Was that why you were about to drop him again? Were you hoping it would feel nice the second time?” Elena asked, her voice even until she shouted the last bit at him. “You ever hurt him again and I will show you what real pain is you pathetic piece of trash.”

She dropped him. The floor rushed up at him, and for just a moment, he knew he probably deserved it. Suddenly he stopped, the air whooshing out of him. His face was less than an inch from the floor, then she dropped him again, his nose smashing against the cold floor as she left the room in a whirl of dark hair and robes.

 

 


	4. Memories and Warnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some nightmares bleed into morning.

**Scorpius**

“Rose is going to be hanging out with us for a while I think.” Scorpius said, feeling a grin creeping onto his face. He cleared his throat and tried to get control of himself.

“That’s fine, you understand I’ll have to do my extra studying alone then? Not that I think you’ll mind an excuse for alone time,” Elena added with a wink. “In all seriousness though, don’t talk to her about the books I have. Or anything else.”

Scorpius knitted his brows together. “I won’t. You can trust her though.”

“With this, I trust only you, there is no reason for it to go farther than that. Please don’t let that trust be misplaced.” Elena said quietly. Scorpius nodded, feeling only slightly as though she had threatened him. He shrugged it off as he always had, she stood up for him and they had never had so much as a fight. Elena had taught him more than any of the teachers, he wouldn’t doubt their friendship now.

 

**Elena**

Rose approached somewhat cautiously. Elena assumed Scorpius must have stayed late in his Arithmancy class to go over his latest assignment with the Professor, as usual, if Rose was arriving alone. Elena stood and held out her hand.

“Elena Hunt, lovely to officially meet you.”

Rose shook her hand firmly. “Rose Weasley. I’m glad I can thank you in person for stopping James.”

“I’ll always protect Scorpius. I hope I won’t be the only one that has his back.” Might as well lay it out for this girl.

Rose met her gaze. “You won’t be.”

 

Elena sat with Rose and Scorpius for almost a half hour before she made her excuses and headed back into Hogwarts. Slipping into a stall in a bathroom no one used, she pulled her robes up and traced a finger over the black mark now standing stark against her pale skin. It ached as she pressed her wand into it, uttering the incantation that would lift the message from it.

No time for owl. Found. Escaped. Be ready for anything. The ministry suspects.

She let out a frustrated sigh and kicked the door of the stall. There was still three more weeks of school, hopefully she would have that much time to prepare. She needed to brew more potions, and research more charms, maybe brush up of her magical first aid. She frowned slightly thinking of Rose, hoping that pushing Scorpius towards that relationship hadn’t been a bad idea. She had to hope he would still come if she called, risk everything if she asked him to. Pressing her lips together in frustration she knew she had lost focus on what was important. This was not the moment to have lost sight of what was important. She found herself unconsciously rubbing at the skin of her wrist. Promises, reminders, always inescapable.

 

Pushing out of the stall she headed out of Hogwarts and towards the Forbidden Forest. Stepping into the darkness of the forest calmed her immensely, it was so wonderfully quiet and free of giggling or arguing. She pulled a robe out of her little bag and tucked it around her, there was always something watching in the forest, best to hide her face as much as she could.

Elena wandered about a half mile into the forest, the gentle glow of her wand leading her towards the strange little plant she needed. Soon enough she found it, a little black vine winding around a fallen tree. This forest was a gold mine of difficult to find magical items, it was a pity no one had the nerve to venture out here. She shoved the plant into her bag and began retracing her steps.

Several hours later she was tucked away in Myrtle’s bathroom breathing a sigh of relief as she lifted the finished the pendant from her makeshift worktable.

 

The common room was still filled with chatter as Elena stepped through the door. A few eyes turned her way, but didn’t linger. Most of Slytherin knew her name, but she was rarely approached. She hurried up to the girl’s dorm and tucked her things away in her trunk. With nothing else to do this late in the evening, she pulled out the latest her father had sent her and settled on her bed to read .

 

One moment there was only grief and rage sweeping through me, choking on screams as she fell, her life ended so swiftly and completely.

Then, there was cold. Clamped heavy and sharp around my mind, squeezing until it sunk in and washed out everything else. It sent chills down my arms and numbed me inside and out until the only thing I could feel was the dull sensation of my father's wand against my skin.  He twisted it against me, the black flowing out into a small spiral that was stark against my thigh. Every thought that tried to enter my mind stuttered and faltered until I just felt lost. I knew....I knew where I was, but it didn't matter. It wasn't necessary.  Neither was the panic building in my chest, the cold swept it away and there was just nothing instead.

"Dispose of the body then rejoin me in the Potions room. We have work to do."

Necessity, there it was. Obedience. A command. My body moved easily as my mind was tugged along without a fight. The body. The body....

Fire burns through it quickly and there is something...

Orders to follow. Don't think, can't think.

 

Elena awoke with a strangled scream, her breath coming in short pants. Frustrated that the dreams had returned after a couple of weeks of peace. She wouldn’t be able to sleep again, not after that. A tempus showed that it was three thirty in the morning, but she slipped out of bed with a quiet sigh regardless. There had to be something she could do, anything to keep her busy.

 

 


	5. Parties and Fights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Those Gryffindor tempers....

**Scorpius**

“The Gryffindor seventh years are throwing an end of year party in the Room of Requirement tonight,” said Scorpius as he sat down beside Elena on grass. The weather was perfect, almost every student was laid out in the grass somewhere.

“Just like they do every year,” Elena responded without interest.

“Ah, but this year we are going.”

Elena looked up from her essay with an arched brow.

“Don’t look at me like that! Rose wants to go as well, and it just wouldn’t be right if you didn’t come along too.”

Elena gave him a long suffering sigh, that Scorpius knew to take as concession. He let out a whoop of excitement and flopped backwards.

“This has been a great year. The best year,” he said with a grin.

“You have become sickeningly happy, I think I might have to off Rose to get you back to normal.” Scorpius laughed and threw some grass at her face.

“Just for that I shouldn’t give you your birthday present,” she muttered.

He sat up quickly. “Present?”

“Perhaps I should just consider attending this party the present instead.”

Scorpius put on his most pathetic face and Elena rolled her eyes.

“You’re not nearly as endearing as you think you are,” she said as she reached into her bag and drew out a small, unwrapped box. Scorpius opened it quickly and pulled out a necklace with a pendant that bore his family’s crest.

“It’s goblin made ironwork, and I added a few enchantments of my own.”

“That’s brilliant, thank you Elena,” he said as he slipped it over his head. “I’ll never take it off.”

“See that you don’t,” she said just a bit more seriously than he had expected. Elena had been acting a bit strangely the whole year, he wished he could just ask her what was wrong, but he knew better than to try.

 

**Elena**

Elena straightened her muggle shirt with a sigh, it was something of Rose’s since apparently she couldn’t be seen at the party in her school robes. Rose had also done her hair, refusing to let her keep it in the bun it was always contained in, and it kept falling into her face. She really needed to learn how to say no Scorpius’ requests for her to be social. The brat had abandoned her to dance with Rose in the midst of the other gyrating students not fifteen minutes after they had arrived, and it was completely undignified.

“You don’t really look like you’re having fun,” said Albus stepping up next to her with two drinks in his hands. He offered her one with a grin. “A drink will make this about 10 times better, promise.”

Elena took it with a snort. “Can’t bloody hurt.” She figured she could handle a few drinks without a problem. Whatever was in the cup let out a little puff of smoke, apparently taunting her, she downed the whole thing in three long gulps.

“Oh, well, that’s one way to do it,” Albus said looking a little shellshocked. Elena just grabbed his drink and downed it as well.

“Those things are disgusting.”

“Right, I hadn’t actually tried it yet,” Albus said eyeing her suspiciously.

“Let’s go get you another,” Elena said grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the punch bowl that was surrounded by giddy students.

After another drink, one that took her a few minutes longer to get through, Elena let one of the Slytherin seventh year boys coax her onto the dance floor. The music was overly loud and the beat was overly fast, but she danced anyhow with his hands on her hips. One song turned into three, and Elena felt her limbs get a little looser and her head start to spin as the alcohol really kicked in. It felt a little bit like flying, losing herself in a crowd like this. She danced in the group for a while longer, any need for dignity forgotten. In the middle of one particularly energetic song, she stumbled on a stray foot and was knocked backwards into a firm chest. Hands steadied her quickly, but didn’t let go. Elena tilted her head back with a laugh and just kept dancing, letting whoever it was drag her in close and move with her. It didn’t matter who it was now, Godric she was drunk.

“Think Malfoy might get mad at you for dancing with his arch enemy?” A warm voice whispered close against her ear. She turned around to find herself face to face with James Potter and his stupid hair and his stupid smile and his stupid beautiful face. Elena stopped herself mid-thought and rolled her eyes so hard she figured she was probably at risk of spraining something.

“No one has an arch enemy in school, there are just bullies and innocent bystanders.”

“So you’ll admit I’m innocent?” James asked with a wide grin as he tried to pull her back into a dance. Elena jerked her arm away with a huff.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re nothing but trouble,” she said as she moved to push her way through the crowd.

“Aw, don’t leave! Weren’t we having fun dancing?”

“Not even a little!” She shouted back as she spotted Albus and Scorpius out on the edges of the dance floor and headed straight for them. They were both looking at her oddly. When she reached them, she tried to snatch Scorpius’ drink from his hand but he pulled it out of her reach.

“No, no, I think you have had enough to drink,” he yelled over the music. “Why in Merlin’s name where you dancing with James Potter?”

Elena glared at him. “Not my bloody fault he got in my way! He just appeared out of nowhere.”

Albus tried, unsuccessfully, to cover up a laugh and she shifted her glare to him.

“I don’t know if I should be amused or horrified that this is how you get when you drink,” Scorpius muttered.

“You said I should have fun and talk to people and not stand in a corner all night. Don’t start muttering at me like a disappointed mum! I am doing what you wanted.”

“Yes,” Scorpius said consolingly as he slipped an arm around her shoulders. “You are, and you are an excellent dancer. In fact, you should come dance with me now.”

Elena huffed at him, but didn’t resist when we pulled her back into the masses. The night was still young after all.

 

**Scorpius**

The more time Rose spent with Scorpius and Elena, the more irritating James Potter and his little group of friends got. The only time Scorpius was safe in the Gryffindor common room was if Albus was with him, if he wasn’t, it was all accidental shoves. His homework randomly catching fire. Ink pots appearing magically overhead to dump ink all over him. Scorpius had begun warding his bed and trunk every morning or he knew he would come back to missing and damaged belongings. Or nasty surprises in his bed. It was taking a lot of effort to rein in the impulse to punch Potter in the face, he would have to do something eventually since ignoring the problem only seemed to be encouraging them at this point. Scorpius hated that he dreaded going into his own common room now, he had never really been welcomed into his house, but before this he had been friendly with a few other students. Perhaps even on the way to becoming friends. They avoided him now, not wanting to get caught up in whatever new prank was played on him.

Scorpius returned Albus’ wave as he stepped through the portrait into the common room. Making his way towards Albus and the table he preferred to study at, someone knocked his shoulder hard, causing him to trip over a chair leg and drop the books and scrolls he had tucked under his left arm. Scorpius knew who it was before he looked up. Standing as gracefully as possible, Scorpius decided enough was enough. He could tell Elena or Rose what a great prat James was being, but Scorpius was a Gryffindor after all, and he could fight his own battles. Enough was enough.

“I’ve tried ignoring you, but you aren’t going to back off are you?” Scorpius asked as he locked eyes with Potter.

James laughed in his face. “You don’t deserve Rose. No way am I just standing by and watching you make her think you’re one of the good guys. We all know what you are, Malfoy.”

“James! What is wrong with you! Scorpius is not...” Albus was cut off.

“Don’t bother Albus,” Scorpius said before turning back to James. “I challenge you to a duel and a wager. If I win, you bugger off leave me alone. If you win, I’ll not speak to Rose for the rest of our stay at Hogwarts.”

By the time Scorpius had finished speaking the common room was dead silent. Albus was staring at him with open disbelief and James looked about ready to burst out laughing. James had a reputation as both the best DADA student of their year, and someone who enjoyed showing off as a duelist in the halls. Scorpius had never stood in the limelight, he knew the entire house thought he was barking mad to be standing in front of James with a challenge they thought he would obviously lose. Yet, Scorpius knew not a single witch or wizard in this room had been trained by Elena as he had. He was going to wipe the floor with James Potter.

“Merlin, you’re stupid. I accept your challenge! Name the time and place Malfoy,” James said with a rakish grin.

“In one hour we will meet behind the Quidditch pitch. Bring a second.” With a whirl of robes that would have made Snape proud Scorpius abandoned his dropped books and left the common room. He restrained his smile until he stepped out, then made his way towards Elena.

 

Scorpius found her in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom bottling a potion. He cleared his throat, suddenly a bit nervous about justifying his decision to her. She looked up at him and immediately narrowed her eyes.

“What have you gone and done, Gryffindor brat?”

He smiled at her then, sometimes he swore she was psychic. “Elena Hunt, I require your services as a second,” he said with a formal bow.

She stilled, her face rather blank. Scorpius swallowed and pressed his lips together. He hadn’t expected her to be actually angry with him. Exasperated, yes, but not angry.

“You will be extremely careful in the spells you use during this duel.”

“Yes, I don’t expect to need to use anything past what we have learned this year in fact. James Potter tends to be overconfident, especially when it comes to me.”

Elena’s face relaxed just enough that the he no longer felt as though she was about to do something drastic.

“I would be honored to be your second. Win or lose, this will be a good test of your skills.” She stoppered another bottle and began to clean up her equipment. “How long until we need to arrive?”

He cast a quick tempus. “We have about thirty minutes.”

“Excellent, we will get you warmed up and then arrive exactly on time. It wouldn’t do for you to be early.”

He nodded his head in agreement and helped her gather the rest of her things.

 

Elena had suggested making an entrance since she was sure James would have gathered a large group of supporters. They needed something to start the duel off right, not with everyone thinking they knew what to expect. A little shock and awe if you will. Scorpius smiled to himself as they circled disillusioned above the gathering of Gryffindors. James stood in the middle of the circle looking confident and amused. A tempus hovered next to him counting down the minutes until the duel was to start. As it drew closer and closer to its finish the Gryffindors became restless, jeering at Scorpius’ absence and cheering for James as if he had already won. Scorpius could see Rose standing away from the crowd with Albus’ arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders and sighed quietly. Rose was probably going to hex him cross-eyed for this stunt.

Five seconds before time was up Scorpius and Elena darted down towards the crowd, launching peruvian instant darkness powder as Scorpius threw down an impassable circle around James to form their dueling area. Thunder and the sounds of growling and screaming echoed through the darkness courtesy of Elena. He could hear the Gryffindors cursing and yelling out. He banished the darkness as soon as he landed and just as the timer rang its finish.

Dead silence settled over the area, but Scorpius did not take his eyes from James, their wands trained on each other.

“Scare tactics Malfoy? How Slytherin of you.”

Scorpius smirked. "I couldn't disappoint the audience you have gathered here. The duel, after all, will be over so quickly a little drama was necessary." James snorted, and Scorpius motioned towards the wards that could be seen shimmering around them. “These wards will drop when one of us is rendered unable to continue, or if one of us surrenders.”

“Did you manage to find a second, or was no one willing to be seen with you?”

“I name my second, Elena Hunt.”

Elena stepped forward and bowed in their direction.

“I name my second, Fred Weasley II.”

Fred stepped forward and curtseyed, much to the amusement of the gathered crowd.

“I volunteer as referee, do either of you object?”Albus spoke up from the sidelines, his face was worried as his eyes darted between his brother and his friend. James and Scorpius shook their heads, so Albus motioned for them to meet in the middle. They slowly turned, standing back to back.

“Take three paces, then begin on my mark.”

The two young men made three lengthy steps and Scorpius could feel the excitement of the moment pounding through his veins.

 

 


	6. The Frustration of Slytherins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elena is always having to tie up loose ends...

**Elena**

Elena kept her face carefully blank, but inside she was equal parts nervous and irritated. Bloody Gryffindors and their unnecessary risk taking. Scorpius expression was one of barely contained excitement, he was finally facing his nemesis head on, and was finally being given a chance to show off for his girlfriend. This was going to be a close duel, James was an undisputably talented duelist. However, James thought Scorpius was incompetent, so with luck he would make a mistake early on.

As soon as Albus yelled, begin, James turned and shot a spell which Scorpius blocked with a shout before whipping around and casting a volley of spells both verbally and non-verbally that threw James back towards the edge of the wards Scorpius had erected earlier. James’ seeker reflexes allowed him to get off a Protego just as Scorpius had cast a blasting spell.

“EXPELLIARMUS! LEVICORPUS!” James shouted while running towards Scorpius who just barely dodged both spells, his movements confident. Scorpius pressed in then, throwing a barrage of weak and strong spells, some that curved around, making them hard to dodge. One spell hit the ground in front of James causing him to lose his footing.

As he fell he shouted, “Avis! Oppugno!” sending a large flock of birds darting towards Scorpius.

Scorpius quick Arresto Momentum caused the birds to slow abruptly, he darted away from them before tossing a stunning spell towards James.

“Confringo!” James shouted. The spell hit the ground just behind Scorpius with such force that the flames singed his robes as he leapt to the side. Elena’s wand slid into her hand, she wasn’t willing to take the chance that Scorpius would become seriously injured in a stupid duel such as this.

Scorpius mask of indifference fell a little as James struggled to his feet, throwing three stinging hexes in a row. Scorpius was backing up swiftly now, letting James press him back towards the edge of the circle, casting barely one spell for every three the Gryffindor threw at him.

As Scorpius let the other boy advance on him, a tripping jinx caught James, followed swiftly by an expelliarmus and Scorpius and James both rushed forward to grab James’ wand. Scorpius just barely reached the wand first, choosing to kick it away rather than struggle over it. James lunged forward, not willing to surrender the duel just from the loss of his wand. Scorpius ducked under James first wide punch, striking him in the stomach as he went, and catching him in the jaw with a left hook as he came up the other side before shoving away from him.

“Want to fight like a muggle then, Potter? I can certainly oblige.” With that he tossed his wand towards where James’ had landed and lifted his fists in challenge. James spat blood from his mouth and glared at him.

“Not afraid to get your hands dirty?”

“Nothing to be scared of from where I’m standing,” Scorpius said before striking at Potter quickly. Neither landed any sure blows for a long minute as they moved around each other. A kick landed hard in James stomach and grunted as his breath was knocked out of him. He retaliated, but a stumble allowed Scorpius to catch his arm before he could move away. Scorpius leveraged against his shoulder until his head was pointed towards the ground and he was unable to pull away.

“I would give you the option to surrender, but a Gryffindor would never back down from a fight just because he was losing, right Potter?”

“What would you know about being a Gryffindor you cowa...Ahhhhhhh!” Scorpius brought his palm down against James elbow as hard as he could snapping his arm. He pushed him away and knocked him unconscious with a well placed kick. The circle immediately collapsed and Fred, Albus, and a couple of other Gryffindors rushed over to James slumped form.

Everyone was quiet, staring at Scorpius with a mix of shock, disgust, and awe. Their golden boy had just been knocked off his pedestal. Scorpius appeared to only have eyes for Rose who still stood apart from the rest of the group. After holding his gaze for a moment she turned and began to walk quickly away, Scorpius scooped up his wand, following her without hesitation. An angry Fred saw him leaving and went to curse him with a shout, but Elena was ready for any retaliation and blocked the spell, petrifying Fred before he could realize who had defended against his spell.

“I think we have had enough dueling today, Weasley.” Elena said as she ennervated Fred and waited for him to move. Albus pushed Fred out of the way so he could get to his brother.

“Don’t just stand there Fred, help me get him to Madame Pomfrey.”

Fred moved to help, but not before growling out a threat at Elena. “Malfoy won’t get away with this!”

“Get away with what exactly? A fair duel on school grounds by two of age wizards? Or do you think Scorpius ought to be punished for winning?”

Fred turned a shade of red to match his hair. “The prat broke his arm! For no good reason!”

“I thought it was rather poetic justice actually, and eye for an eye, an arm for an arm.”

“What the bloody hell are you on about?”

“Oh? Potter never mentioned it? Didn’t walk around the Gryffindor common room bragging about attacking Malfoy without warning or just cause? Imagine that.” Elena said drily.

“You’re lying. Typical, dirty Slytherin!”

Albus shoved Fred. “She’s not lying, and don’t talk to her that way!”

Fred looked at Albus completely baffled. “How can you be on her side?”

“It’s not a matter of taking sides. Hunt isn’t lying, that’s just a fact, I’ll tell you about it later. Besides all that, Malfoy is my friend, and I asked James to back off, and he wouldn’t! He’s lucky I didn’t pound his face in myself for being such a giant prat about who Rose is dating.”

James groaned as he woke up and tried to move. He looked confused for a moment, then glared at Elena as she stared down at him.

“G’way fr’m me you....Slytherin....evil....girl,” mumbled James.

Elena rolled her eyes. “We’ll be having a conversation soon, Potter.”

With that, she summoned her and Scorpius’ brooms before walking away with a nod to Albus. He returned the nod before turning back to James with a worried expression. That Albus had gone against familial and house loyalty to defend her publicly was an interesting development. It could be useful.

 

**Scorpius**

Scorpius raced after Rose as she marched through the castle, red hair whipping behind her. She didn’t slow until she had reached their room and shoved her way inside.

“How dare you do such a thing!” Rose yelled at as she slammed her book down on the table. “Neither you nor James have any right to tell me who I am or am not allowed to talk to, much less date! You don’t get to bet on my feelings Scorpius Malfoy!”

Scorpius cringed internally, he really hadn’t thought this through.

“I’m so sorry Rose, I just....I wasn’t thinking. I was just mad and tired of him bullying me and trying to push us apart. I just wanted him to back off.”

Rose slumped down into the chair. “I did too, you know I did. This just wasn’t the way.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Quit apologizing. Just promise me you won’t ever do anything like that again.”

“I promise,” Scorpius said as he walked around the table to sit down next to her.

“He’s family, I need you to remember that. He can be a prat and a bully, but he is my cousin and I can’t just boot him out of my life.”

With a sigh Scorpius laced their fingers together. “I’ll try to avoid him as much as I can. The only thing I can’t promise is that I won’t defend myself if he decides to attack me again.”

“Of course you defend yourself, I don’t want you hurt either,” Rose squeezed his hand tightly. “I wish people could see you like I do. The war was over long before any of us were even born, this shouldn’t be happening any more.”

 

The following week whispers dogged every step Scorpius took. He tried to take the attention with equal parts unconcerned bravado and irritation. The Slytherins all seemed to want to congratulate him and invite him to switch houses, the Gryffindors couldn’t decide if they should fear him, hate him, or befriend him. Mostly the Quidditch fans hated him.

 

**James**

James rubbed his face as he sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table. There was about fifteen minutes left to breakfast, but he wasn’t even sure he wanted to eat. He stared down at the table sullenly, at least Malfoy wasn’t there to gloat this morning. An envelope dropped into his empty plate and he stared at it confused, he didn’t normally get post on Sundays since his mum and dad always sent him something first thing Saturday morning. His name was written on the front in a flowing script he didn’t recognize at all, he opened it with a frown.

 

Meet me in the abandoned classroom in fifteen minutes. I promise not to kill you.

                             - Hunt

 

His mind flashed back to her murderously angry expression as she stood over him after that disaster of a duel. He buried his face in his hands, he’d look like a total coward if he didn’t show, and he had the disturbing sense that she would track him down and the promise to not kill him might not still apply. The girl was creepy.

He crumpled the note in his hand as he stood.

“Everything alright, James?” Fred asked, having arrived just as he stood to leave.

“Just not in the mood for breakfast mate, feeling a bit queasy.” James said before slipping away from the table. The less questions the better.

As James made his way to the old classroom, his tired worry gave way to irritation. Malfoy had won the bloody duel, there was no reason Hunt should still be leveling threats at him.  If Hunt thought he was just going to stand there and let her threaten him, she’d figure out soon enough how wrong she was. He squared his shoulders before shoving his way inside.

The classroom was dimly lit, but he could see Hunt leaning carelessly back in a large stuffed chair with a book on her lap. She looked up after a moment, her expression as infuriatingly blank as always.

“Did you summon me here to threaten me, Hunt?” James asked angrily.

“Threatening you directly would be a Gryffindor move, as a Slytherin I prefer to leave it unspoken.”

James rolled his eyes and turned to leave the room.

“I drug the full story out of Scorpius after that duel.” James paused. “I’m fairly certain he was still not giving me all the details, but I suppose a man does have to maintain his pride.” Elena said with a huff. “I would have thought that after you made such an absolute idiot of yourself when you attacked him before, that you wouldn’t have kept on bullying him over a relationship Rose Weasley is obviously quite happy to be a part of.”

“Rose is practically my sister! I don’t want a slime-bucket like Malfoy anywhere near her!” James snarled. “Her dad is going to blow a fuse when he finds out about it.”

“Excellent, then you can leave it all to her parents. Go write them a letter, tell them how Rose is dating a Malfoy, and how a smart, stubborn girl like her just can’t seem to see what a terrible bloke he is. I mean, he is a Malfoy after all, not like he has to actually do anything wrong to be awful. His blood is enough to show his worth after all, right?” Elena said as she closed her book with a snap and set it aside.

“Don’t act like I’m the bad guy here. I don’t trust him,” James said sullenly, not appreciating what she was implying at all.

“Why not?”

James glared at her. He felt twisted around inside, Malfoy was a right berk. He had walked into the Gryffindor common room that first year with an arrogant look on his face and James had known he’d be just like his father, just like man Uncle Ron had always told stories about.

“Like father like son.”

Elena laughed at him, her black hair falling around her face as she shook her head.

“I think you prove that theory wrong. Your father was a hero, and you’re just a brat with an over-sized ego.”

James pushed off the wall and had to reign in the urge to draw his wand on her.

“Was there a point to all this? I’m not staying in here just to listen to you lecture me.”

Elena leaned back with an unconcerned shrug. “Leave Malfoy alone. Pretend he doesn’t exist, avoid him like he has dragon pox, I don’t really care how you handle it. Bullying him will only make the Weasley girl defend him harder, and if you do hurt him again, well, unspoken threats are the best and all that.”

James grit his teeth and let the door slam against the wall as he stormed out of the room. He headed straight for the quidditch pitch, he needed to fly. Bloody infuriating Slytherins.

 

 

 


	7. Summer...Fun?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elena's plans get thrown for a loop in the most unexpected way.

**Elena**

“Why can I not stay with the Malfoy’s? They had graciously invited me to their house for the summer even before my father decided to disappear. I don’t see the problem.”

“As they are currently suspected accomplices, you cannot be allowed to stay with them. This has been explained several times Miss Hunt. Mr. Potter will be here to pick you up in just a few hours, please don’t make a scene.” The Headmistress paused. “They wanted to send you to the juvenile offenders holding cells at the Ministry to be kept in confinement, he refused to allow it. This was the compromise.”

Elena sat back in her chair; this was not good, she didn’t trust it. Potter obviously suspected her of something, perhaps he thought he could earn her trust. She barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes.

Deciding the conversation was absolutely a lost cause, Elena stood and left the office. Scorpius was waiting for her outside the door, his lips set in a thin line.

“I guess they couldn’t assume a Malfoy might be innocent.”

“It would have looked suspicious no matter what your last name was,” she admitted with a sigh. “This is going to be miserable.”

Scorpius put an arm around her shoulders. “Albus is a friend, it won’t be that bad.”

“He’s your friend,” she said leaning away. “And Harry Potter will be breathing down my neck for an entire summer.”

Scorpius opened his mouth as if to say something, then stopped and glanced around. “Let’s go sit outside while we wait.”

Elena followed him outside, even knowing what he was going to ask, and knowing that she couldn’t answer him.

It was a particularly pleasant day with a cool breeze, most of the students were inside packing up and saying their goodbyes for the summer. Scorpius began casting muffling and anti-eavesdropping spells. Elena helped him, that familiar curl of guilt settling in her stomach as she prepared to lie to her best friend yet again.

Scorpius sat down with a huff of breath. “I know you are lying when you say you don’t know what happened.”

“Well aren’t you the accomplished legilimens,” she said trying to sound as bored as possible.

He didn’t even turn to glare at her. “Why won’t you tell me? Do you think I’m going to turn you in or something?”

“You’re better off not knowing certain things. There is no reason to drag you any further into this. Do you realize the trouble I’ve already brought down on your family’s head? People were starting to forget the war, but now the name of Malfoy is once again associated with a dark wizard.”

Scorpius chuckled softly. “No one had started to forget anything, and they never will. Not that it matters, you know I would do anything to help you. My father too, he said...” Scorpius paused. “He is willing to help is all that matters.”

“What did he say?”

“That he is willing to help.”

“Now who is lying?”

Scorpius sighed, distractedly playing with the seam of his robe. “He said he understood the position your father had put you in, that he would do whatever it took to help you avoid his mistakes. That there was still hope, still choices that could be made.”

Elena leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes. If only there was still a choice.

“Scorpius I can’t. Do you understand?” She turned away from him. She couldn’t meet his gaze, but she was begging for him to understand.

“You can’t?” He asked carefully.

“I can’t.”

 

Elena was sitting quietly with her trunk next to the entrance to the Headmistress's office when it finally opened and Harry Potter stepped out. The castle was almost uncomfortably quiet since everyone had left on the Hogwarts Express that afternoon and it was almost dinner time now.

“Miss Hunt,” he said politely holding out his hand. She shook it carefully, feeling a strange nervousness creep up, which she immediately squashed down. “Sorry this all took so long to get sorted today.”

“Auror Potter. It was no problem to wait, of course.” she hesitated, but then decided a bit of gratitude would give the right impression. “Thank you for keeping me out of Ministry custody this summer.”

He frowned at the reminder, but nodded. “No thanks needed, it was the right thing to do. We’ll have to make our way over to Hogsmeade so we can catch a portkey home.”

Elena levitated her trunk and followed Potter out of the castle.

“I hope you can make yourself at home this summer.” He said with a smile. “We’re going to a few Quidditch games, do you like Quidditch?”

Elena shrugged noncommittally. “I’ve never paid much attention to it, though Malfoy did drag me to a few games here.”

 

The portkey dropped them off in front of a two story house set on a hill. The property line abutted a thick forest, but the countryside was otherwise just open hills. A red-headed woman, Ginny Potter, stepped outside to wave and Albus smiled at her warmly. James Potter stepped out just behind them, his eyes settling on Elena. His expression hovered somewhere between anger and nervousness. At least she wouldn’t be the only one trapped in an uncomfortable situation this summer.

The group was ushered inside with minimal introductions, since Elena knew everyone but Harry Potter and his wife. The house was laid out with a very open floor plan, a large well-lit kitchen opened into a dining area with a table that would seat at least twelve comfortably. The living area was a mish-mash of couches and over-sized chairs arranged around a fireplace and several bookshelves against the walls. Bright pictures of a happy family were on every wall, it felt like a home.

The rest of the family settled in downstairs while Mr. Potter led Elena upstairs to her room. It was a guest bedroom at the corner of the house that overlooked the backyard, which she now saw had a quidditch pitch and a large garden.

Potter cleared his throat and leaned back against the wall. “I’d like to be clear from the beginning of your stay what the rules will be. You are a guest here, but you can’t leave the property without an escort. There are anti-apparition wards and other measures to ensure that. I wish they weren’t necessary, but the Ministry needed certain guarantees. Anything you need, tell Ginny or myself. Albus had said you were friends at school, so I hope the summer won’t be too unpleasant.”

Elena considered her options, Potter seemed to be trying to set himself up as an ally by implying that he thought the Ministry was in the wrong and should be leaving her alone, but that seemed too easy. She was certain he would be watching her very closely while she was here, wanting to protect his family notwithstanding.

“If I send an owl, is someone going to read my letters to make sure I am not plotting anything nefarious?” She asked somewhat sarcastically, wanting to let him think she was nothing more than an irritated teenager.

“The contents of your letters won’t be disturbed, but the Ministry will be watching to see who you contact.”

Elena did roll her eyes then and sat down heavily on her bed. Taking that as his clue to leave, Harry straightened his robes and opened the door.

“Dinner is in half an hour, I’ll send Albus to fetch you if you want to stay up here ‘til then.”

“As you wish.”

He finally left, shutting the door behind him and leaving Elena with a familiar sense of frustration. She pointed her wand towards the door and set up a few locking charms, she needed an uninterrupted moment to set a few wards on her room, and hide a few things. Including a bag she could grab as soon as her father summoned her.

It had only been about fifteen minutes when she heard a knock on her door, a quick one-way transparency spell showed Albus standing outside her door. She bit the inside of her cheek to stifle her anger, he had been persistent in attempting to be her friend at Hogwarts, and it seemed he was going to be even more determined now that she was at his house for the summer.

Yanking the door open just fast enough to startle him, she attempted to put on a pleasant expression. “Dinner time already?”

“Not quite, just thought I’d come up and see you before we have to head downstairs with everyone.”

Elena stepped back and waved him inside her room, shutting it firmly behind them in case there were any more Potters lurking in the hallway waiting to be social.

“Sorry you’re stuck with us for the summer,” he said as he stood uncomfortably in the center of her room.

“Better than some dank cell in the Ministry.” She said drily.

He smirked at that. “I’ve already asked Dad if Scorpius can come visit this summer, especially when Ron and Hermione bring Rose and them ‘round.”

“That probably won’t be allowed, but you never know, your father is Harry Potter.” Elena sat down on the end of her bed. “It’s surprising enough that he volunteered to have the tainted spawn of a dark wizard join his family for the summer. I suppose they’ll let him do as he pleases.”

“No one thinks you’re tainted, Dad just wanted to help, to protect you. They were more worried about you being attacked than running off to help some dark wizard.” Albus paused. “Or, uh, so I’ve heard.”

“Eavesdropping on Ministry business? How daring.” Elena said with a grin. Perhaps Albus could be helpful, might as well be nice since she was probably going to be stuck with him shadowing her regardless.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before.”

Elena cocked an eyebrow at him. “So sorry to have deprived you.” Albus turned bright red and cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Well, we should probably get down to dinner. Mum gets all cranky and yells about the food getting cold if one of us is late.”

“Of course, lead the way.” Elena agreed easily.

Everyone was just sitting down as they walked into the dining room. The two remaining seats put Elena either sitting next to James or Harry, she just barely kept from sneering at James as she chose the seat next to him. He stiffened noticeably as she sat down, attempting to subtly scoot his chair a little farther from hers. She turned and gave him a sweet smile.

“We’ll have to get to know each other a bit better this summer James, since I am such good friends with your brother.”

James’ eyes darted to Albus, who was for some reason blushing again. Possibly because Ginny was glaring at him suspiciously, and Harry was trying not to grin. Perhaps this summer would be more amusing than dull. Elena looked forward to writing about it to Scorpius, he always said she didn’t have enough fun.

 

 

 

 


	8. Back and Forth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one is happy with the current situation.

**Scorpius**

Scorpius swept in the front entryway to the Manor, two house elves levitating his trunks behind him. His mother followed in just behind him.

“Your father should be home by now darling. I’m sure he is in his study.”

Scorpius nodded without replying and made his way towards the study swiftly. Hopefully his father already had news for him concerning the letter he had sent ahead of him. With a perfunctory knock on the door, he let himself inside. His father smiled warmly, rising and embracing him tightly.

“Are you well?” Draco asked.

“I’m mostly worried about Elena actually.”

Draco sighed deeply. “Yes, we need to talk about that.” He walked back to his desk and grabbed two old spell books. “You said you felt she was attempting to tell you that she was literally incapable of telling you anything about her father.”

“Yes, his location and activities at least. I believe it might be specific to anything that might incriminate him actually. She has always been hesitant to speak about her father at all, but before now I never suspected it was because she had been cursed or taken some vow.” Scorpius paused for a moment. “I think this goes beyond a Vow of Silence or something like that, I think she may have been coerced into taking an Unbreakable Vow. She was begging me to understand something. The look on her face,” Scorpius sighed and plunked down in a chair. “She has never been that close to...She needed me to understand something. Something important.”

Draco stared at his son, his lips set in a thin line. “I worry that we will not be able to do enough to help her if that is the case.”

“What do you mean? I won’t give up on her!”

“Calm down, I wasn’t suggesting anything of the sort. Bloody Gryffindor brat,” he said with a slight smirk. “If she has taken one, or multiple vows, or if her father has cursed her, there is a chance that any move the Aurors make could harm her. We might have to tell them our suspicions. She could be forced to fight.”

Scorpius slid a hand over his face in frustration. “We can’t just go to the Aurors. They won’t believe us! And I think Elena might actually kill me. Avada Kedavra, the whole bit.”

“She will thank you if you have any part in releasing her from her father.” Draco said quietly as he flipped through one of the books. “You should write to her often this summer, try to arrange a chance to meet with her in person.”

“Albus told me their family goes to Quidditch games throughout the summer, we can at least see them there.” Scorpius slumped back in his chair, his head pounding with frustration. Elena was family to him, and he felt helpless to protect her.

The long walk to the owlery helped calm him, but it couldn’t completely take away that persistent feeling of frustration. He would write to Rose, as promised on the train, and try to arrange a visit as soon as he could. He needed to see Elena and he knew Rose would help without asking too many questions, she was smart enough to see from the beginning that Scorpius was worried about Elena’s safety.

His mother was just leaving the owlery as he walked in.

“I was going to write you,” she said stopping him as he passed her. “However the plans were uncertain until this morning, so I just hadn’t bothered. I’ll be spending most of the summer with my parents as they’ve arranged a tour of the Americas and Africa. You know how I love my field research, and I think it will be very informative.”

Scorpius nodded without looking his mother in the face, nothing new then. He refused to let her news bother him like it had when he was a child. His father loved him enough for two and that was all he needed.

“I hope you have a pleasant trip.”

“I’ll bring you back some souvenirs, I’m sure I’ll return before you break is over,” she said with an awkward smile.

“Don’t rush your trip,” he reassured her before slipping into the owlery.

 

**James**

She was everywhere. In the kitchen with his mother helping with lunch, outside chatting with Lily about Slytherin secrets (and James was still confused how his own sister ended up in that house), or in the den playing games with Albus. James was up in his room pouting, like he had been for the last two days, when he heard a knock on his door. He waved it open with a flick of his wand.

“Alright, why are you hiding up here?” His father asked as he came in and sat at the end of the bed James was currently sprawled out in.

“I’m not hiding,” James said, insulted.

“Really? You haven’t come out of your room except for meals, you have done nothing with Albus or Lily, and I think this might be the first conversation we’ve had since you got back. Your mother wanted to come up here and hit you with a bat bogey hex just to get you out of your room.”

James rolled his eyes, but he knew his Dad wasn’t leaving without an explanation.

“I just don’t trust her. And I don’t like her.”

His dad sighed. “When Albus had said they were friends I assumed that extended to you.”

“Remember that visit to the infirmary where I wouldn’t tell why I ended up there?”

“And your mother and I assumed it was a broom trick gone wrong that you didn’t want to admit to?”

“That’s the one,”James admitted. “It might have been because of a duel with Scorpius, Hunt was his second. I’ve had a few disagreements with her this year, and she might have threatened me.” His father went to stand up, an angry look in his face, but James quickly sat up and grabbed his arm. “No, no! I, uh, I pretty much deserved it.”

“What did you do?” His Dad asked in a voice that left no more room for half-truths.

“Well, long story short, I was not happy with Scorpius dating Rose and I was trying to get Scorpius to back off, and I took it a little bit too far. Hunt is pretty protective of him.”

His Dad let out a heavy sigh and sat back down. “When I named you after my father I really wasn’t hoping for you to take after your namesake so completely.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was a bully. He treated Professor Snape really poorly, did some things I will not tolerate any son of mine doing.”

James slumped back against his pillows. “It won’t happen again. Not really my proudest moment. Scorpius took me down in front of my entire house as well, it was really embarrassing.”

His Dad sighed, but seemed to accept that James already knew what he had done wrong. “Alright, get downstairs and finish cleaning up the kitchen for your mum. You’ll be helping your Uncle George out in the shop tomorrow, I hear he has a ton of potions to brew.”

“So I’m grounded?”

“Until the Quidditch tournament.”

 

 

 

 


	9. Quidditch Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's hope the end justifies the means...

**Elena**

Ron Weasley stared at his daughter holding hands with Scorpius Malfoy with a look of utter horror. His face had gone pale and his mouth was working, but no words were coming out. His wife walked up beside him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t believe we’ve met. Hermione Weasley,” she said extending her hand to Scorpius.

“Scorpius Malfoy,” he replied taking her hand with a bow. “I’m glad we could finally meet, from my father’s recollections of you at school, I was always sure Rose took after you. She is the brightest witch of our year after all.”

Hermione had an odd look on her face, and Ron had still not recovered from the hand holding. Elena decided it was time to escape while she still could.

“I’m so glad we could all meet up here,” she said with a smile. “I think I’m going to go grab some refreshments. Albus, do you mind escorting me? Since I’m still not allowed to wander off alone.”

Albus hurried after her when she didn’t wait for a response. Elena almost felt bad for what she was planning since Albus obviously trusted her. However, she knew Draco Malfoy was here, this was a golden opportunity she couldn’t let pass.

They got a few bags of candy from a passing trolley before they found the little drink shop with the lima lush that Elena liked.

“Albus, I have just one more stop to make, do you mind?” Elena asked with smile.

“Of course not, the game doesn’t even start for another thirty minutes at least.”

It was a relatively short walk to the Malfoy private box. Draco Malfoy stood as they entered, obviously surprised to see her without Scorpius, perhaps even more surprised that she had brought one of Potter’s sons with her. She waited until Albus closed the door before stunning him. Malfoy had his wand out and aimed at her face before she could blink.

“What are you doing?”

“Scorpius said I could trust you,” Elena said, very carefully not moving.

“That doesn’t mean I trust you. Answer the question.”

“I need to speak with you privately, so I’m going to alter Albus’ memories. I won’t harm him, it will just be something a little embarrassing so he won’t want to talk to anyone about this visit. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass by.”

Malfoy dropped his wand with a grimace and Elena let herself breathe a small sigh of relief. “Scorpius said you could be trusted, and I have nowhere else to turn for help right now. All I can tell you is that my father is on the run, and not just from the Ministry. I believe he will summon me soon, and he will need,” she paused with a sigh, her voice catching in her throat. “If I am summoned, it will not be for tea and scones. Do you understand?”

Draco met her gaze for a moment before answering. “I do.”

“There are some things that would be helpful to me, if they were left in particular locations. Things I cannot get while I am being watched this closely.”

“Tell me what you need.”

Elena pulled a parchment from her robe pocket. “Tap the parchment and say I offer assistance to view what I have written, Accomplished to blank the parchment again.” She turned to go, but was stopped by his hand on her shoulder.

“Is this really the only way I can help you Elena? Sometimes there are other choices we can make that we don’t realize exist until someone offers them to us.”

Elena turned back to look at him, her hand unconsciously grazing her wrist, trembling just a bit before could steady it. “I have no choices, none at all.”

As she turned back to Albus prone form, her chest felt tight with something akin to panic. With a deep breath she focused on the task in front of her, she couldn’t break now, the worst was yet to come. She obliviated Albus before rennervating him and then gently guiding him out of the door. She glanced back at Draco Malfoy as she left, holding his gaze for a moment, every bit of hope she thought she had pushed down welling up in that moment. She stepped outside, shut the door behind her and tried to ignore the way breathing had suddenly become so hard. She positioned Albus to face her with her back pressed up against the door, before casting the false memory charm with a silent apology to someone she wished could be a friend.

As soon as his eyes refocused Albus blushed violently and tried to look anywhere but at her.

“Perhaps we should rejoin the others,” she suggested gently.

“Of course, yes, we should. Then I’ll just...” Albus snapped his mouth shut and began walking back towards his family’s own private box. Elena followed silently at a respectful distance. They rejoined the group and James looked suspiciously between the two of them as Elena took a seat next to Scorpius. Albus did look rather green around the gills, and Elena was fairly sure she hadn’t been quite able to regain her composure. It felt as though the world had tilted on its axis.

 

**Scorpius**

Scorpius knew it would be hard to get Rose’s parents to accept him considering the history between their families. When he had come of age his father had finally told him about what had happened during the Dark Lord’s stay at the old Manor. He had given him the memory of standing on the Astronomy tower with his wand raised to kill Dumbledore, he had shown him the moment had been face to face with Harry Potter in the Manor, he had shown him Bellatrix holding Hermione Granger down on the floor. He hadn’t hidden anything from him.

He still hadn’t been prepared for how awkward he would feel standing in front of Rose’s parents and realizing that they might agree with James Potter concerning his worthiness to date their daughter. Scorpius shifted in his seat and tried to focus on the quidditch game.

“Are you not having fun?” Rose leaned in to whisper in his ear.

“I am, it’s just...I thought I might be able to make a better first impression on your parents,” he admitted.

Rose’s face softened. “You’ve been perfect, Dad just always tends to overreact. He knew about you theoretically, but apparently you look exactly like your father did at your age and it was a bit of a shock to the system.”

Scorpius smiled. “Your mum seemed a bit thrown as well, but not nearly as much.”

“I know she has some bad memories of your father during the war, but they’ve never told us kids about it. Refuse to tell us more than has been in the papers.”

He nodded as he remembered the tense set of his father’s shoulders as he had talked about the war. As far back as he could remember, his father had been atoning for what he had done, and not done, during the war. Sometimes Scorpius thought he forced himself to talk about it as some sort of penance, he could understand why the Potters and the Weasleys would refuse to.

“I guess I will just have to come over often this summer so they can get used to me.”

“Absolutely, it’ll probably take Dad a few years to get over the shock, but he’ll come around eventually.”

“I’ll see if I can track down some muggle oddities and bribe him into liking me.”

“Oh, very devious. Perhaps you should have been sorted into Slytherin.”

Scorpius laughed. “I’m not nearly ambitious enough for that.”

Elena was sitting right next to him, and she had seemed distracted ever since she had rejoined them. He had tried to ask her a few questions right after she got back, but had received short, clipped answers in reply. She had been in a good mood when they arrived at the tournament, but that was obviously long gone. Scorpius sighed and brushed his thumb along the back of Rose’s hand. He was so glad she wasn’t as moody as some girls. Scorpius was swiftly distracted by his Quidditch team scoring an excellent goal. Everyone in their box stood and cheered, Rose smiling up at him with those red curls dancing around her face and bright eyes. His heart almost clenched at how happy he was that he could be standing here with her now.

  
  


“Did Albus seem alright during the game?” Draco asked his son as soon as the portkey deposited them back on the Manor grounds.

“He was acting oddly, both him and Elena were, though she ignored my questions about it. He seemed embarrassed mostly, avoided us as much as he could. I know they had disappeared together for a little while before the game. Why?”

“She came to see me while Albus was with her so she could give me this list. She obliviated him after and I was concerned.”

“She obliviated him?” Scorpius asked, aghast.

“Yes, after stunning him. I almost hexed her when she did that, I did check to see if she was polyjuiced.”

“This isn’t like her, it’s almost reckless.”

“I think she might be getting desperate, she is terrified of something.”Draco pulled the list from his coat pocket and handed it over. “I will do what I can to get these things for her. I fear it would only harm her if I deny any of her requests.”

Scorpius sighed heavily as he read the list, his heart sinking. These were not supplies for someone on the run, this was for someone going to war.

He also had to wonder if she had ever obliviated him.

 

 


	10. And Things Get Worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so their troubles increase...

**James**

James saw Albus out by the garden shed, sitting dejectedly on the bench. He’d looked miserable ever since he had come back into their private box with Hunt at the start of the Quidditch game, even though their team won in the end. And it was probably all Hunt’s fault, the timing couldn’t be that much of a coincidence. He sat down beside Albus with a plunk, startling him out of whatever thought he’d been lost in.

“Out with it. You’ve been moping around like your pet hippogryph died for almost two days now.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Albus muttered.

“I know it’s Hunt’s fault. So what’d she do? Did you catch her doing something evil?”

“No!” Albus said, looking offended and irritated. “It’s not her fault.”

James stared him down. “If she was involved it was probably her fault.”

“Merlin, James, I tried to bloody kiss her.” Albus shook his head as if he was trying to shake out the memory. “She looked so horrified, told me she didn’t like me that way. I don’t even know why I tried to kiss her. I mean, I like her, she’s, I mean look at her! She’s bloody gorgeous! But I know, I mean, I don’t....she barely tolerates me! It’s not as if I fancy myself in love with her, we were just friends. Why would I try to kiss her?” Albus slumped down a little farther. “It’s so embarrassing, I can’t look her in the face.”

James tried not to examine why he felt a bit of relief that Hunt had turned his little brother down. He decided to just be angry she had embarrassed him.

“Look, you’ll be fine. I’ll step in if Dad tries to volunteer you to escort her somewhere alright? Maybe you can just go visit Uncle George for a few days, hang out with Fred and Roxanne since they didn’t make it to the Quidditch game.” James patted his brother on the back. “Mum and Dad know you like to mess about at the shop anyhow, won’t seem odd to them. You can let this just blow over.”

“Yea, I’ll ask in the morning.” Albus said, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Maybe she’ll just forget all about it in a few days, but its not bloody likely.”

“I can always obliviate her for you.”

“I might obliviate myself.”

James laughed and shoved Albus off the bench. “Get used to rejection little brother, I’m the one all the girls want.”

Albus laughed from the ground and threw a dirt clod at James’ face. “Did you a drink a love potion for yourself? I think that’s the only thing that can explain the dreamy look you get on your face every time you look in a mirror.”

“Better that than breaking the mirror like your ugly mug does!” James scoffed as he helped him to his feet, the insults continuing as they walked back towards the house.

 

The next morning breakfast was set to be as awkward as it had been since the game, so James decided to mix things up a bit. Elena had just sat down after bringing a platter of bacon from the kitchen when James plopped down in the seat right next to her.

“G’morning,” he said with what he knew was his most charming grin. Elena raised an eyebrow and put a piece of bacon in her mouth. “Sleep well last night?”

She sighed, but answered. “I did. Did you sleep well James?”

He nodded and reached across her to snag the plate of eggs and a piece of toast and she pressed herself to the back of her chair trying to avoid making contact with him. “Never felt more refreshed in fact. It’s put me in a mood to go flying.” His parents finally joined them at the table and he turned to his Dad. “I was just telling Elena I wanted to take her flying today, just out on the pitch in the back. Would that be alright?” Elena stiffened noticeably, but kept silent.

“Of course! Can’t keep you cooped up in the house for the whole summer,” his Dad said with a smile and a nod, obviously glad James was trying to patch things up between him and Elena. He almost felt a little guilty.

“You’re too kind,” Elena said with a sharp kick to his shin. He grunted a bit, but tried to cover it up with a cough. Albus was staring at him like he’d lost his mind, but James just smiled at him and took a huge bite of toast.

His mum rolled her eyes. “You’ve been hanging around Ron too much. There is no need to try to shove that whole piece of toast in your mouth at once,” she grumbled.

As soon as the dishes were cleared James walked up behind Elena and slung his arm around her shoulders.

“Time to fly!” He announced.

“Get your arm off of me, or lose it,” she threatened with a glare.

James moved away and held out his hands in surrender. “I think my arm has had enough damage for one year.”

Elena snorted, but followed him as lead her outside towards the broom shed. There were few clouds overhead and steady breeze that made the temperature perfect.

“Do you actually know how to ride a broom?” James asked in the most patronizing tone he could manage. Elena snatched up a broom that was leaning against the wall without a reply and stomped out of the broom shed.

She was hovering on the broom just outside when James emerged after selecting the broomstick his father had bought him earlier that year.

“Some particular reason you developed a strange urge to spend time with me?” She asked as he mounted his broom and kicked off to pull level with her.

“Thought I'd just get you out of Albus’ way, to be honest.”

Elena didn’t respond right away, her eyes searching his face, for what he wasn’t sure. “Then you could have just taken him flying.”

“But then I wouldn't be able to make you uncomfortable at the same time,” he said grinning. Elena leaned down over her broom and shot forward, whipping past him fast enough to knock him off center on his broom. He flipped around quickly and followed her, no way could she outrun him, there was a reason he was one of the best Seekers Hogwarts had ever seen.

She had darted down towards the end of the pitch and he could see when she turned sharply to the left to curve around the goalpost. He crunched himself smaller over his broomstick and put on a burst of speed to catch up to her. He wasn’t able to catch up until halfway back across the pitch, but when he did he passed her with a mocking salute and whirled into a wronski feint that had him laughing and whooping. Elena had stopped a few yards away, hovering in the air with a blank look on her face. After a moment, she pulled up and did a few flips. She wasn’t half bad on a broom, but it was obvious she hadn’t spent enough time on one to be really good. For the next hour or so she mostly avoided him, choosing to fly around the opposite end of the pitch from wherever he was. James let her while he got in some practice that left him feeling sore, but satisfied.

She however still had that uncomfortable expression on her face by the time they landed to put the brooms away. Seemed like a win-win to James.

 

**Elena**

Elena had settled into a comfortable routine at the Potter’s. She had been teaching Lily to play chess, and she had gotten good enough to that Elena knew she would be able to beat some of the older students.

“Make sure that you start small with the betting on these games. You’ll also want to watch the students you challenge play at least five games against a few different opponents before you choose them, that should give you the best representation of their skill level.”

Lily nodded excitedly, she drank up everything Elena said, apparently very excited to have another Slytherin to talk with finally. Elena quite liked her, she would definitely be making time for her when they returned to Hogwarts next year.

Elena felt her mark burn a few hours after dinner. She looked over at Lily animatedly telling her mother about her latest chess victory over Albus and felt her heart in her throat. She should know better by now than to count on any sort of future. It was a bit earlier than she usually went to bed, but she had made enough of a habit of disappearing up into her room that it shouldn’t seem odd. It seemed as though the pounding of her heart should be obvious to everyone in the room, but, of course, one had noticed a thing. Elena shut her book and headed upstairs, slipping into her room with a sigh of relief. She didn’t have time to change clothes, just grab her bag, throw on her cloak and set a locking charm on her bedroom door. Her window opened silently, but she had never been able to satisfactorily determine if it had been warded to alert someone when it was opened. She had been randomly opening it during her stay, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still being checked. An arresto momentum allowed her to jump safely from the second story window, and she ran swiftly towards the broom shed. As she mounted the broom and took off towards the property line she saw the front door open and a figure run out in the direction she was fleeing from. She picked up speed, she could not afford to get stopped now.

She hopped off the broom as soon as she was past the apparition wards, pausing for just a moment to mutter Destination, Determination, Deliberation as she pressed her wand into her mark. She felt the strange pressure of apparition at the same moment as she felt a hand wrap around her arm. She jerked away.

 

Too late.

 

She hit the floor hard as they landed, instinctively shoving the person’s heavy weight away from her. Horrified, she looked up to see that it was James. Oh Merlin, she had brought him to her father. Her mind raced, just for a moment, and she could see only one option.

Elena stunned him before he even reached for his wand.


	11. Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's never easy.

**James**

James woke slowly, his head pounding and body aching, his back against something cold and damp. When he could finally lift his head, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the sight of Elena staring coldly at him through the bars of his cell next to a man a disturbing smile on his face. He reached for his wand, even as his mind caught up to the fact that Elena was twirling it between her fingers.

“James Potter, such good fortune has brought you to us, in my hour of need,” said the man, his smile widening. “My daughter was so very irritated that your rash act almost caused her to splinch herself on her way here, and I do think she was a little worried I’d be mad at her sloppiness. I, however, am an opportunist. This seems like a great opportunity to solve a few problems all at once. I hope you don’t mind sticking around for a while?”

“Who the he-” James began to shout, but he was cut off with a silencio from Elena.

“Mind your tongue, and learn to tell when you’re being asked a rhetorical question,” she said without inflection.

The man laughed, the sound sending shivers down James’ spine. “Watch him while you work, I have some people to contact.” He strode from the room, which James now saw was a dungeon set up as some kind of potions lab. James’ cell was just big enough for him to lay down in, stone walls on two sides, bars on the other. Elena stared at him for a moment longer before turning away and stirring something in a large cauldron. He had watched her spend the last few weeks playing with his little sister, joking around with his brother, and even spend time chatting with his mother. Even so, he hadn’t really trusted her, but this? He couldn’t believe she was just going to stand there and do nothing.

“So that’s it? You’re going to just go along with the madman and keep me a prisoner here?”

He was ignored.

“You could at least answer my questions!” He shouted as he shakily stood to his feet, pain lancing through him.

“You’ve known I was one of the bad guys all along, are you really so shocked to be proven right?” She asked quietly.

James found he couldn’t answer. “What is he going to do with me?”

“I couldn’t ruin the surprise even if I wanted to.”

James felt the fear finally starting to sink as he leaned against the cold metal bars of his cell. There was something off about Elena. She seemed too subdued, and her father seemed insane. Insane and evil. He felt the weird ache in his left leg intensifying, looking down at it, he realized he was bleeding. His leg been splinched, he could see the gash through his pants.

“I’ve been splinched, will you not even get me something for that? At least a bandage.”

“It’s not going to kill you and I don’t have time to waste fetching you bandages.” Elena glanced back at him, her eyes seemed dead, some spark gone.

“What is wrong with you?” He asked, his voice not as steady as he had hoped. Elena just stared at him for a moment before turning back to potions. James sunk down to the floor, wrapping his arms around his knees, and trying to ignore the burning pain in his leg. Surely his father had some sort of tracking spell on her, maybe he wouldn’t even be stuck in here that long.

 

**Elena**

 

Elena felt the cold grip of the spell on her mind, the way it muffled her reactions, put her emotions just out of reach. Fighting for focus was difficult, but she couldn’t let it push her, she had to stay just ahead of it. Not let herself act in any way it would object, not give it a reason to sink in its teeth. Bloody James Potter had cost her hours worth of effort when she had seen the panic start to set in for him. Hogwarts golden boy didn’t belong here. This was her fault, this was....no. She needed to focus. Another deep breath. Another stir of the rod. She would brew these potions, she would anticipate what her father would need next. There was nothing else, there was no immediate threat, she could not afford to falter now.

 

**Scorpius**

An owl burst in through the open window in Scorpius’ room and slid to stop on his desk. It was late to be getting mail, so he took the letter and opened it quickly. He felt his stomach drop as he read Albus’ words.

 

Elena had run. And James was missing, presumed to have been kidnapped.

 

Scorpius leapt from his chair and raced downstairs towards his father’s study with the letter clenched tightly in his hand.

“Father,” he said as he burst inside. “She’s gone. Her and James are both gone. Albus said he overheard his father telling the aurors that he heard the wards go off and saw her on a broom headed for the property line when he went to check on them. They can’t find James anywhere, they think she kidnapped him.”

Draco hurried over and took the letter from him, eyes scanning it quickly. “We have to contact Potter and tell the aurors everything we know. This has gone past what we can help with on our own.”

Scorpius growled in frustration. “What if we can’t trust them? What if this gets her killed? Or locked up?”

“Enough Scorpius!” Draco shouted. “If we do nothing, she will almost certainly die. Even if she lives, it is under his thumb, her father’s sins on her conscience. She deserves a choice and this is the only way to give her a chance for that.” He summoned a house elf before Scorpius had a chance to object further. “Get Harry Potter, tell him it is urgent and pertains to his son’s recent disappearance. Tell him that I can and will help.”

After the house elf left, they were both silent, worry heavy on both their minds as the minutes ticked by slowly.

Scorpius sat down heavily. “I am scared Father, I am scared for her.”

“You are a Malfoy and a Gryffindor, you will not let fear rule your decisions.” Draco walked closer and put a comforting hand on his son’s shoulder. “I have stood by and watched evil things happen without saying anything or doing anything before, that choice was wrong then, and it would be wrong now. We must act.”

“That idea always seems so much simpler when you aren’t being faced with the risk of someone you care about being hurt.”

“I know,” his father said quietly.

A few minutes later the house elf popped in. “Auror Potter and Auror Weasely here to see you Master Draco.”

Draco squared his shoulders. “Bring them in.”

 


	12. And Worse Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keeping your hopes up is a constant struggle.

**Elena**

James became less panicky and more irritating as the week drug on. She could feel him watching her every move, waiting for some kind of opportunity to bust his way free in true Gryffindor style. Elena looked over at him now, he was leaned against the wall in the back of his cell staring up towards the stairs that led out of the basement.

“Thirsty? I might be gone for a while,” she asked. James turned to face her and shrugged.

“Where are you going?”

“I have yet to answer a single question, when are you going to stop asking?”

“Never,” he practically growled.

With a sigh Elena stood from her stool and left the room. If he was going to be stubborn and belligerent then he could just be thirsty.

Her father was waiting for her just inside his study down the hall, so she followed him silently out into the main hall of the old manor. One half of the instructions for the spell her father was selling was tucked securely in her robes. Her stomach rolled as she thought about anyone else being subjected to this spell, moments like this made her want to sink into the spell, let it block out everything so she didn’t have to feel. She thought of James in the dungeon, the hopeless look he was taking on, and pushed her own hopelessness down. How long had her mother fought? Elena could not make her sacrifice worthless.

They waited in silence just in front of the crumbling entrance way, but Elena could feel her father’s impatience. A group of five robed and masked figures appeared out of the darkness, one of them stepping to the front and crossing his arms defiantly.

“We require a final demonstration of the spells effectiveness,” he said gruffly.

Her father nodded and motioned a hand towards Elena. “The cruciatus spell is one of the most powerful in existence, there is nothing that can stop the pain. Cast it on her now and she will scream and writhe on the ground. If I tell her to keep quiet and still, she will. This should be sufficient to show how completely the spells controls her.”

The man spoke quietly with one of the others for a moment before he nodded. “That will be an acceptable demonstration, however I will cast the spell.”

Her father nodded and stepped away from her. Of course he would throw her to the dogs like this, like she was nothing. “Whenever you are ready.”

Elena fell to her knees as the pain raced through her, a scream scratching her throat raw as her vision wavered. Every nerve was on fire and she scratched at the ground wanting to move away from the pain, but it was everywhere. Suddenly it was over, leaving her with muscles still shaking as she sucked in great gulps of air.

“This time you will not scream and you will not move,” her father said. The spell snapped down tight, cold, and heavy in her mind and limbs. The pain came again and her jaw clenched shut, all the air left her lungs and she couldn’t scream, couldn’t breathe. The pain didn’t stop, it wasn’t stopping. Panic rose in her throat choking her just as much as the lack of air. Then it was over and she let herself slump onto the ground and just breathe. There were tears on her face and she tasted blood in her mouth, probably explained by her aching tongue. She heard them speaking above her, the buyers sounded pleased. A sharp kick to her shoulder alerted her that her rest was over, so she struggled to her feet, slipping a potion for muscle spasms and pain from her pocket and drinking it quickly.

“Place the payment on the ground and I’ll give you the spell.”

“Show us the spell book first, I want to see that you have it on you,” said the bulky man standing in front of the group.

As her father pulled his half of the spell slowly from his robes Elena just barely saw one of them move. The spell book was ripped from her father’s hand with a summoning spell and Elena threw up a protego just as a barrage of spells raced towards them.

 

**James**

The ceiling of the dungeon shook as huge explosion sounded overhead. James struggled to his feet, his heart beating double time. It could be aurors, maybe his father had come for him. There was a second explosion, then James heard the stairwell door slam open and someone run down the stairs. Elena was covered in dust, and had a cut just above her brow that dripping blood down the side of her face, but her eyes were sparking with anger and she seemed alive for the first time since he had woken up in his cell a week ago.

“You try to fight me now and they’ll kill you, we have to run and I can’t levitate your unconscious body out of here fast enough. Do you understand? I need you to cooperate.”

James rolled his eyes at her. “I was really hoping that was the aurors.”

“No such luck, Potter,” she said as she unlocked the cell door and motioned him out with her wand trained on him. “Hurry up!”

She grabbed him by the shoulder, her wand digging into his spine, and shoved him up the stairs ahead of her. He could hear shouting coming from behind him as they ran through the halls of some old, run down manor. His leg burned more with every step, the unhealed wound reopening.

“I don’t think I can keep this pace up,” he whispered back at her.

“Shut up, not much farther.”

The hallway came to an end at a pair of french doors that Elena impatiently directed him to open. It was hard to tell in the dark of the room, but he thought it was a kitchen.

“Come on,”she said urgently. “The exit is through here, we just have to get past the apparition wards.”

They were almost to the door when Elena shoved him down to the floor just as a spell cracked overhead. She whipped around to face their attacker, throwing spells with a mad grace. James crawled towards the door and tucked himself behind some shelves. His leg was bleeding freely now, there was no way he could run far, and no way he could apparate without his wand.

Elena threw a spell with an angry snarl and the man opposite her finally went down with a scream. She blasted the back door open and yanked him up by his arm, dragging him as he tried to stumble to his feet. They ran about twenty feet, Elena’s hand gripping his arm like a vice, before she suddenly turned and wrapped her arms completely around him. The tug of apparition yanked them into darkness.

 

They landed in the middle of a forest and James felt his leg give out. Elena’s tight grip on him kept him upright.

“Sit down, I need to fix your leg before we try to go any farther.”

James huffed out a weak laugh. “Now you’re going to fix it?”

Elena met his eyes for just a moment, but didn’t respond, just pushed him towards a nearby tree, pulled out a small bag, and reached her arm down into it.

“Undetectable extension charm?”

She rolled her eyes, “Obviously.” Elena found the potion quickly and shoved it in his hand.   
“Hold this, I have to clean it.” She ripped his torn pants open a little farther and cast an augamenti over the wound. The water felt cool against the gash, but she wasn’t nearly as gentle as he would have like as she wiped away the grime that had collected on his skin. James just grit his teeth and tried think about how he might be able to get his wand back as soon as his leg was healed.

“Where are you taking me from here?”

“There are some supplies I need to retrieve, when I get the summons I will take you back to my father, wherever he is.”

James glared at her. “Why? Your father isn’t here, there’s no one but us. If you take me to the aurors instead you won’t get in trouble.” Elena started shaking her head. “You won’t!” he shouted. “My father would protect...”

“You don’t understand. You have no idea what is going on here,” she interrupted.

“I don’t think you want this, you’re just scared of him! He’s not even here!”

“You need to shut up right now,” she said, shoving him back against the tree with a hand against his chest as she muttered an incarcerous and he felt the ropes wrap tightly around him.

“He’s going to end up killing me, you know he will. If you take me back I’m dead. Please don’t do it, just contact the aurors,” James pleaded as he jerked at the ropes binding him.

“I can’t, James! I can’t!” She shrieked, her hands pulling at her hair, her face contorted in anger and fear. “Just shut up!”

“Please Elena...”

“SILENCIO!” Elena paced in front of him, her breaths quick, her hands shaking. She pulled another potion from her bag and downed it, after just a moment her breathing slowed and her hands steadied. She knelt down beside him, quickly applying the dittany and a bandage that she wrapped securely around his leg. The pain from the gash receded swiftly into a welcome numbness. James let his head fall back as he shut his eyes so he didn’t have to see the dead look that had settled back in her eyes.

 

They arrived at a small cabin in the middle of a densely wooded forest after two more apparitions. It was small and dark, the door creaking ominously as she pushed him inside ahead of her. Elena bound him securely in a corner and began setting up wards around the cabin.

“I’ll be back,” she said before rushing back outside, leaving him utterly alone.

 

 


	13. Not Quite Up A Creek Without A Paddle....but close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you have to go it alone, sometimes you can get a little help.

**Elena**

Elena pulled the pendant out from inside her shirt and gripped it tight in her hand.

“Scorpius, I need you,” she whispered, holding onto the pendant tightly as it warmed against her skin. After ten minutes she began to think he wasn’t going to come. Then, there was the pop of apparition and he was there, thank Merlin, he had come.

She didn’t even think about stopping him when he ran forward and wrapped her up in a hug. Elena just gripped him tightly and let herself breathe, for just a moment.

Scorpius stepped back just enough to be able to see her face, his hands gripping her arms tightly. “You’re alright, we’ve been so worried. Where is James?” He asked looking around the clearing they were standing in.

“Safe for now, he is hidden. I couldn’t...I just couldn’t bring him to this meeting. I’m so sorry, I wanted to try, but this was all I could manage.”

“Come back with me, we can...”

“No, Scorpius, just listen. I can’t go back with you, I’m going to have to take James back to my father when he summons me. There isn’t much time and I need you for this.” Elena swallowed, she had to tread so carefully now. “I was thinking earlier about how I wasn’t able to get all of my things from the Potters before I left. Left my favorite coat there and everything.”

Scorpius nodded, his eyes searching her face as he tried to draw meaning from her words. “Perhaps I should get it, take it back to the Manor and keep it safe for you.”

“That would be prudent. I think your father should look after it though, since he is more responsible. You are always losing things.”

“I’ll make sure he gets it all.” Scorpius pulled her back into a hug. “I’m going to get you back Elena, whatever it takes. You are my family.”

Elena pressed her face into his shoulder and tried to believe.

 

**Scorpius**

Scorpius apparated back to the Manor and into the middle of a group of aurors and two seriously worried fathers.

“Is James alright? Did you see him?” Harry asked, rushing forward. Draco hung back, but Scorpius could see his father’s concern from the stiff set of his shoulders.

“He is safe, but he wasn’t there. She said she had hidden him and couldn’t bring him when I met with her.”

Ron clapped Harry on the shoulder at that news. “We’re going to get him back Harry, we will.”

“Did you find out anything?” Asked Draco.

“She said there is something back in the room she was staying in at the Potter’s house. She couldn’t tell me anything specific, but I know she didn’t go to all the trouble of meeting me just to tell me she had forgotten her coat.”

 

Two aurors stood with Harry Potter and his father as Scorpius stepped into the guest room Elena had stayed in.

“The aurors have gone through this room more than once, I don’t know what you think you’ll find,” said one of the aurors.

“She mentioned her coat specifically, and I have a few ideas where she might have hidden it.” Scorpius turned a circle in the center of the room, looking for anything that seemed familiar, or out of place. There was a small necklace tree set on the desk in the corner of the room with a few necklaces hanging from it that caught his eye, Elena never wore jewelry. He walked over to it quickly and found a necklace that was an exact replica of the one she had given him for his birthday, and recently summoned him through. He picked it up, laid it out on the bed and very carefully pictured her coat before attempting to untransfigure the necklace.

As it morphed smoothly into a familiar, black coat he breathed a sigh of relief.

“This is it, this is what she wanted my father to have.”

Draco stepped into the room just after Harry Potter and quickly began searching through the coat. He pulled a small red book from one of the inside pockets. The front was inscribed with words The Diary of Elena Hunt. Draco flipped it open, but the pages were blank. Pulling out his wand, he tapped the diary gently.

“I offer assistance.”

The pages filled with words.

 

 


	14. Conversations and Arguments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It helps to understand your enemies.

**Elena**

“Where did you go?”

“I met with Scorpius.”

James snorted. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised they are involved.”

Elena’s hand tightened on her wand. “They are not involved. Whatever you think of me, know that the Malfoys are not responsible for any of this.”

“You just met with him! How can he not be involved?”

She sighed heavily and began pulling food from the cabinet. “They are not involved in my father’s dealings. Meeting with Scorpius today was a last ditch effort to keep YOU alive, I’m fairly certain he is in contact with the aurors.”

“So now you’re on my side?”  
“No, I’m on my own side,” she said as she slammed a pot down on the muggle stove. “It would hurt my chances of ever getting out of this if you die. You are my best opportunity just as much as you are my father’s.”

Elena tried to calm the whirl of thoughts in her mind as she began heating the canned soup, but she felt like she was about to explode. She had never wanted to drag an innocent bystander into the mess that was her life. Involving Scorpius was bad enough, but that, at least, felt like it was his choice. James Potter didn’t deserve any part of this.

Dinner was awkward and silent, Elena cautiously freeing his hands so that he could eat. She felt the exhaustion of the day catch up with her as soon as she had food in her stomach. Her muscles still ached from the cruciatus earlier in the day and while she had healed the minor wounds from the earlier battle, she still felt battered. However, sleep was elusive for both of them. James eyes were fixed on nothing, his shoulders slumped forward. He was so different here, stripped of the bravado and charm she had always seen from him at Hogwarts.

“Why did you follow me that night?” She asked, her voice seeming overly loud in the quiet of the mostly empty cabin.

James let out heavy breath. “I saw you heading off the property, then my father running out of the house, but I was so much closer. I thought I could help, thought I should help,” he paused briefly. “I was bit ticked at you for how much you embarrassed Albus too, a chance to hit you with a spell sounded pretty good. And no, I don’t need you to tell me how stupid of an idea that apparently was.”

Elena couldn’t stop the slightly hysterical laugh. “Bloody Albus.”

James glared at her. “Don’t start in on my brother, he didn’t actually do anything wrong.”

Elena shook her head. “He didn’t actually do anything at all.”

“What are you talking about?”

There was nothing left to hide now, she thought as she turned towards him. “He told you about the attempted kiss? And my rejection?”

James nodded.

“Albus never tried to kiss me. I went to meet with Draco Malfoy while he was with me and oblivated him, then altered his memory to something embarrassing hoping he wouldn’t want to talk to anyone about. Seemed like it would make it less likely that someone would discover he’d lost time if he was doing his best to avoid talking about it.” Elena ran her hands through her hair tiredly. “I also needed more time alone and Albus was extremely determined to not leave me sitting in my room alone.”

“You’re a bloody prat,” James said angrily.

“I was doing what I had to.”

“You obliviated my brother! You could have damaged his mind!”

“The risk of damage was non existent, I’ve done it before your brother. I’m good at it.”

“How can you just step all over people like that? He thought he was your friend and you were just using him.”

“I had no choice! I do what I have to in order to survive! Tell me James Potter, when have you ever in your sheltered, perfect existence had to choose between what was right and life of someone you cared about? You play quidditch and get packages of sweets from your mother every week and have nothing more than your homework to worry about.” She kicked one of the packs across the room with a strangled yell.

James swallowed, apparently deciding he didn’t have a response to that. “You really don’t want to help your father then? You just think you have to?”

Elena sighed and braced her hands against the counter, trying to pull herself back together. “I do have to, I don’t just think I do.”

She could almost see it all clicking, finally, into place in his mind.

“Where is your mother anyhow? Is that who....is that who you are talking about? The someone you care about?”

“My mother is dead, my father killed her in front of me the day she stopped being useful.”

James leaned back against the wall didn’t speak again for a long while.

 

**James**

There wasn’t much to eat in the cabin besides canned soup and little boxes of slightly stale crackers.

“I think I’d cut off my left arm for a nice piece of pie,” muttered James as Elena set down another bowl of brothy soup soup in front of him. Elena surprised him by agreeing. It was probably the first civil thing she had said to him since their conversation two nights before.

“The food was one of my favorite things about Hogwarts,” she said after taking a bite of her soup. “I used to sneak down the kitchens after dinner and take extra dinner rolls for snacks.”

“Sneaking into the kitchens is almost a rite of passage, I think,” James added.

She finished her soup quickly and then went back outside, whatever moment they had shared, now clearly over.

 

James slept fitfully. Elena had transfigured a length of rope into a lengthy shackle that gave him enough leeway that he could use the restroom and sleep in the bed, but it was a constant reminder that he was trapped here. There was also Elena herself, she hadn’t slept more than a handful of hours in the five tense days since they had fled the manor. She was taking potions, keeping busy, and alternating between depressed silences and angry outbursts. He felt just as on edge, waiting like this, with nothing to do but replay their conversations in his head. It was enough to drive anyone mad.

Finally giving up on sleep just as the sky began to lighten, James rolled out of the bed and wandered over to the window. Elena was standing outside staring into the woods, shuffling her feet and passing her wand from hand to hand as if she had too much energy to keep still. James sighed and sat down at the table, she was getting worse.

Just a few minutes later she came back into the cabin, pausing in the doorway as she saw he was awake.

“How much sleep have you gotten since we left?”

“I haven’t really been keeping track.”

“You’re getting twitchy, you can’t keep taking those pepper up potions. You need actual sleep.”

“I suppose you’d just love for me to fall asleep.”

James rolled his eyes and leaned back in the chair. “Tie me up. Knock me out. Do whatever you need to, but get some sleep. You are literally my only defense right now and you’re going to be completely useless if you keep going this way.”

Elena stared at him until she seemed to come to some kind of decision and motioned towards one of the stuffed chairs near the fireplace.

“You should probably sit somewhere more comfortable. I’ll just tie you up there,” she said haltingly. James nodded in agreement and moved to go sit in the armchair. She cast the incarcerous quietly.

“Comfortable enough?”

“Yes. Now sleep.”

She backed away awkwardly before spelling the curtains to the cabin shut and falling into the bed. It didn’t take long at all before she stilled, her body finally untensing. James leaned his head back into the cushion and let the calm settle over him. He drifted off to the steady rhythm of her breathing.

 

The sound of tapping at the window woke them both up. Elena practically leaped out of the bed, a wild look in her eye, and James felt extremely vulnerable bound to the chair. Their panic was for nothing though, when Elena opened the curtain to reveal a small brown owl.

James let out a gusty sigh as she opened the window and the owl dropped a letter into her hand.

“Terrible way to wake up.”

Elena nodded, already distracted by the contents of the letter.

“What is it? Is it from your father?”

“One of his associates, we will be staying with him and a few others until my father can confirm our next safe house is still undiscovered. He believes this location will be discovered within a few days and wants to know you are being kept somewhere secure.” She sat down heavily on the bed and tossed the letter to the side. “These men they aren’t...” she paused, her fingers digging into the bedspread. “This will be an unpleasant stay for you. I'll try, I’ll...I don't want to see you hurt," she said quietly.  "I didn't want this. I didn't plan for this." There was nothing but regret on her face.

“If they work with your father they wouldn’t kill me, would they? I’m still useful to him.”

Elena laughed harshly. “No, they wouldn’t kill you, but they are going to hurt you.” She slumped down. “Oh Godric, they are going to hurt you and I won’t be able to stop them.”

James swallowed, was trying to stay calm, needing to calm Elena down, but it was feeling impossible. She hadn’t showed the slightest concern for him yet, seeing her panic over this visit was beyond unsettling. He wanted to beg for her to just let him go. He thought of his father and mother and how they must be worrying, of how two weeks ago he thought the worst thing that could have happened during his summer was to have an unwanted house guest. He had been so wrong and so stupid.

“Elena, you have to pull it together,” he said quietly. “If there is any chance you can protect me, you have to calm down and think.”

She finally turned back to face him after a few long moments. “I can’t let them see that I’m trying to protect you at all. I may even have to be cruel or they will begin to suspect me. These are the worst sort of people. You can at least reason with my father,” she finished with a dark laugh.

James held her eyes for a moment and nodded. “We’ll get through this. I can survive whatever they might do to me.”

Elena shook her head, but stood and began packing. Obviously this was another situation where she had no choice.

“Who are these people?”

“Not people, I don’t think there is any humanity left in them.”

“What do you mean? What are they?”  
“Werewolves,” she said quietly. “Remember the stories about Greyback during the war? They are what is left.”

 

 


	15. Between and Rock and a Hard Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes there is just no way out.

**Elena**

There was almost nothing to pack back into her handbag, so the time to leave came far too quickly. Elena had to fight against her impulse to take James and run, knowing the spell would stop her before she was able to take a step out the door, knowing even thinking about it might be enough for it to try to take over once again. James seemed to have decided to try to keep up a brave front. He kept trying to tell her that he would be fine, but he had no idea what they were facing. He had never been around the madness that was a man gone wolf, a man who embraced a cursed life.

“I’m going to keep your hands tied and a blindfold on you, they may not come off during our stay.”

“Do what you have to.”

Elena cast an obscuro to blindfold him, then waved her wand over his wrists to bind them securely. Stepping slightly behind him with her wand held at the ready she gripped his elbow tightly and pulled them into the first apparition.

The stench of decay and sweat hit her before anything else, it was just as she remembered then. Elias Burgess stalked towards her, that wicked toothy grin in its usual place on his mangled face.

“Sweet little Ellie Hunt has finally come back to visit! Did you miss me love?”

Elena didn’t take her hand away from James, just stared the werewolf down. “Where am I putting him?”

Elias pouted. “No chit chat, always just straight to the business. Your father has much better manners.”

“I’m sure I don’t care,” she said calmly.

The werewolf stalked closer, reaching up to tap James on the nose, causing him to flinch backwards. Elias grinned and poked him again. Elena jerked at James’ arm and tightened her grip, willing him to be still. She didn’t want to start these games any sooner than she had to.

“Are we going to stand out here all day staring at Potter’s spawn, or are you going to show me where to put him so I can get dinner? I have owls I need to send.”

“Marcus!” He yelled over his shoulder. “Take our esteemed prisoner to the basement.” Elias turned back to Elena and extended his hand. “I will show you to the dining table.”

“I’ll see where he is being held first. I need to be able to assure my father it is secured to his specifications.”

“As you wish,” he said with a mocking bow. “Follow along sweetheart.”

The werewolf called Marcus, a hulking man with no hair, pulled James out of her grip and slung him over his shoulder. James struggled for just a moment before Elena cuffed him around the head.

“Stop struggling you idiot, I’m finding it tiring,” she sneered at him. Her heart was trying to beat in double time, knowing that as soon as he was secured in his cell, she would have to leave him for a while. The last thing she wanted to do was leave him alone with any of Elias Burgess men, they were all sadistic, but it couldn’t be avoided. Elias had always been fascinated with her, she knew he would pay special attention to James just because Elena had brought him here. If he suspected that she was concerned about him being hurt....well, she couldn’t let herself think about that.

The basement turned out to be underneath a ramshackle hovel just behind the main house that was barely still standing. Elena stepped carefully around an old pile of bones that was scattered across the floor and followed Marcus down into the dark stairwell. Elias followed closely behind her and she could feel him practically vibrating with energy. The stairwell let out into a narrow hallway that opened up into a large room with a low ceiling. There were a few cells that looked as though they had been made by drunk trolls along the back wall and a few werewolves gathered around a long, dirty table playing a game of exploding snap. They all looked up with interest as James was hauled over to the middle cell and thrown unceremoniously inside. Disoriented from being carried, he wasn’t able to brace himself for the fall at all and his head hit the floor hard enough to open a gash on his forehead. Refusing to flinch, Elena scanned the room, then turned to Elias.

“There will always be a guard?”

“This lot will be keeping our guest well entertained, day and night. I’ll not have it said I’m a dull host,” he said with a grin that was all teeth.

“I’m sure your reputation will not suffer on our account. I’ve seen enough to satisfy my father, so if you will lead me to the kitchen and the owlery?”

Elena turned her back on the cell, on James face down on a dirty floor, not moving, and left him without any protection at all. Her instincts screamed at her to grab him and run, but she couldn’t. That familiar, hated pressure was already building in her mind, the cold coiling up, ready to strike. Everything was balanced on a blade’s edge with her control so close to slipping. James needed her to be able to think and dance around the edges of what the spell allowed. Elena forced herself to think back to the day everything had ended for her, the day her will was stripped from her, and played the image of her mother falling limply to the ground over and over in her mind’s eye. Her mother had sacrificed everything and had fought and suffered for years, and it was all for Elena. She could make her mother proud, she would find a way to shield James from whatever she could, she would protect him from the worst.

 

**James**

The door to the stairwell had barely clicked shut before James heard chairs scrape back and the voices of whoever was in the room with him draw closer. Something thumped against his back and someone whistled at him.

“Not sleeping are you?”

“Maybe his little head got knocked against the ground too hard and he’s dead,” said a slightly higher pitched voice. He sounded kind of excited by the idea. James did his best to keep his breathing even, and to keep still.

He realized that tactic wasn’t going to work at all when his cell door creaked open and he was jerked up roughly. A grimy hand gripped his cheek roughly and he pressed his lips into a thin line, not wanting to react or jerk away, but hating that he was being touched. Someone else ripped the blindfold from his head and the lighting of the room made him clench his eyes tightly shut.

“Closing your eyes won’t make us go away pretty boy,” growled the one that was currently holding him upright.

“Think you’re too good to talk to us then? Maybe we should take you down a peg.”

He wasn’t prepared for the fist that landed his stomach, or the kick that caught him in the back as he fell to his side on the ground. He tried to curl in on himself but it was almost impossible with his arms tied behind his back. The blows didn’t come very quickly, just often enough that he never could quite catch his breath.

After a few minutes, they seemed to tire of their game and slammed the cell door shut. He lay where he had landed and took gasping breaths. If this was all he had to deal with for his stay here, he knew he would be fine, but this just seemed like the beginning. He didn’t kid himself that it wouldn’t just get worse from here.

 

James watched the group of men play exploding snap for a while longer, the cut on his head finally stopped bleeding and drying blood was sticky on his face. His whole body felt like a mass of bruises now. Every so often would of them would glance at him but so far playing their game had proved more interesting than using him as a punching bag.

The stairwell door opening set him on edge, his worry being proven correct when a tall, lean man with scars stretched across his face sauntered into the room. His eyes found James as soon as he came in, and didn’t leave his face for a moment as he drew closer.

“Have my boys been treating you right?” He asked crouching down in front of his cell. He was the one from before that had greeted Elena when she arrived.

“They’ve been very accommodating,” James said, his tongue feeling dry and heavy in his mouth.

The man reached through the bars and, grasping onto his neck, drug him closer. James grit his teeth, biting back the urge to spit in the werewolf’s face.

“It would be so much fun to rip you into pieces and leave you scattered on the steps on the Ministry for your father to find,” he said with a wide grin. “However, Hunt told me specifically not to kill you. At least for now. I bet he’ll sell you to me as soon as he finds a way out of his current mess.”

James stared back in challenge, determined to show no fear.

“If he does decide to send you back to your daddy though, I have to make sure you have a little souvenir to show him from your time here. Just a little something so that he knows I close I came.”

The man pulled the cell open and flipped James onto his stomach. Roughly pulling down the back of his shirt, he pressed a wand into the back of James’ neck. The tip of the wand burned like fire as he drug it slowly across his skin. For a moment James thought he would be able to stay silent, but the sadistic prat was going so slowly. James bit into his lip to keep from screaming.

“E B for Elias Burgess, make sure you remember that name just in case there are more men with the initials E B that despise your father. I’d hate for him to not know it was me.”

James found himself gasping for breath and full of anger. He had never wanted his wand so badly in his life.


	16. On the Other Side of Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waiting is the worst sort of torture...

**Scorpius**

His father had used a replication spell to create a copy of the diary for everyone, so that evening found Scorpius hunched over a diary with his heart in his throat. He had failed her.

“This location that she mentions, the cabin her father bought last year, that isn’t far from here. We should send a group of aurors to check it out.” Weasley nodded and wrote another owl.

“What we know so far is that her father is a mercenary, and that whatever spell he has recently perfected on Elena is what he is trying to sell now. Any news on that list of groups we think would be interested in buying something like that?” Weasley asked the witch in the floo connection.

“It’s a long list, can’t think of anyone such a thing wouldn’t be useful to, but we have a list of the groups that might have the money to actually afford it. We’ll start there.”

The aurors began poring over the list while Scorpius’ father came to sit down next to him.

“The pendant she gave you, what do you know about it? Is there a chance we could track her with it? Or apparate to her location?”

Scorpius shook his head and pushed down the sorrow and anger he was feeling. “She didn’t tell me much. It’s goblin made ironwork and she added enchantments to it, I had assumed at the time they were simple protection spells, but I was obviously wrong,” he paused as he lifted the pendant from his shirt. “She warned me to never take it off. It seemed strange at the time, but I think it’s still important. I think there might be something else that it will be needed for beyond her summoning my help that one time.”

“Describe what it did again,” Draco asked picking up a quill and parchment.

“The pendant warmed against my skin and I felt an overwhelming sense of urgency. I could hear her in my mind as long as I was gripping it in my hand and I had a sense of where she was. I knew that I could apparate to her, and only her, as long as I was holding the pendant.”

“Hold it now, can you sense anything?”

Scorpius gripped the pendant tightly in his hand and closed his eyes, searching for anything, but it was quiet.

“She must do something to activate it, there is nothing right now.” Scorpius stood up from the dining room table and left the room. He needed room to breathe.

He had been sitting outside by the broomshed for about fifteen minutes when Albus came around the corner.

They both looked up, startled. “Oh, didn’t realize you were out here,” Albus said uncomfortably.

Scorpius looked back down towards the ground. “I didn’t know,” he said softly.

“Didn’t know what?” Albus asked as he sat down next to him.

“That this would happen. How much trouble Elena was in. That James would end up being held hostage like this.”

“I never thought you did,” Albus said with a heavy sigh. “We’re friends and I trust you. I haven’t been avoiding you, you know. I’m just so worried and there is nothing I can do. Mum and Dad are frantic and I’m just sitting here waiting.”

Scorpius laughed humorlessly. “I was standing in front of Elena less than a week and a half ago and I still couldn’t do anything. I had to watch her walk away and she was so afraid.”

“I hate this.”

“Yea.”

  
  


**Elena**

 

The summons had finally come. Elena slung her pack on her shoulder and walked as quickly as she could, without actually breaking into a jog, down to the basement. She hadn’t been able to find an excuse to check on James for the entire afternoon, Burgess or one of his men constantly pulling her away for some crap reason or another. It was close enough to the full moon that everyone at the camp was on edge, quick to anger and quicker to violence.

Elena pushed the stairwell door open to find James had been drug out of his cell and laid out on the table. Burgess was crouched over him, tapping his face with the wand, but it was the rest of his injuries that concerned her. His shirt was torn to shreds and his torso was covered in bruises and small burn marks.

“Been having fun, Elias?” Elena asked angrily. He rocked back onto his heels and winked at her.

“Always, love. Want a turn?”

“It’s time for me to go. Get him up off the table.”

Elias tutted and shook his head. “No, no. You don’t get to just rush out like that! Have a little fun with your friends before you trot off after Daddy.”

Elena pulled her wand and examined her options. “I don’t have time for this. I am leaving and I am taking Potter with me. You can play your games some other time.”

The werewolf stepped in close and dropped his voice to a whisper. “I feel like you just don’t want to join in. Worried about us messing up his pretty face? Or do you just not want to hurt him?”

“Back off and hand him over. I won’t ask again,” Elena said growling into his face.

Burgess stepped back, and for a moment she thought she might be able to get away without a fight, but he met another werewolf’s eyes and nodded and she heard James suddenly scream as he was hit with a crucio. Elena moved as fast as she could, throwing out a confringo and tossing out a handful of peruvian instant darkness powder simultaneously. She grabbed at James and tossed out a few more spells to clear her way. As soon as Burgess managed to banish the darkness powder she shut her eyes tightly and cast a Lumos Solum, bright light blinding everyone after the sudden change from the complete darkness of before. She was able to lighten James and sling him over her shoulder before anyone could recover. Another blasting spell dropped half the ceiling on their heads as she ran for the door. Elias hand grabbed at her ankles as she started up the stairs and she stumbled. She kicked at him and her foot connected hard with his head. She cast stupefy at him until he was forced to fall back into the room. James grunted in pain as she struggled up the stairs with him. As soon as she forced her way outside she apparated. They fell in a heap when they landed and Elena paused just long enough to determine neither of them had been splinched before she apparated again.

 

Their final destination was a small house in a muggle neighborhood. She laid James back on the thin carpet and looked over him frantically. “James, are you alright?”

“I feel like complete and utter crap, but as long as no one else kicks me today I’ll be fine.”

He was bruised, and cut, and burned, but all the injuries could be healed.

“I’m so, I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she began casting the few healing spells she knew. If the summons hadn’t come when it did he would have been hurt so much worse, and she might have had to just stand by and watch. Again. She didn’t think she could watch him die too.

Dispose of the body.

“It wasn’t your fault. You stopped them and got me out of there,” James said without looking at her. He seemed exhausted.

Elena shook off the flashback and pulled a pain potion out of her pack. She carefully rolled James onto his stomach and removed the bindings from his wrists.

“Drink this, it will help with the pain,” she said as she helped him sit up and handed him the potion. The silence between them as Elena went over his wounds with whatever she could, felt strained. She wanted to apologize, to explain everything, but she couldn’t. Her apologies were worthless if she couldn’t promise to make this stop.

“Is your father going to come here?” James asked as she dabbed at a burn along his forearm.

“Not until tomorrow evening at the earliest.”

“What’s going to happen next? Is he really going to sell me to Elias Burgess?”

Elena paused and looked up to meet his gaze. “That’s not the plan, not now,” she paused and licked her lips nervously. “I will do everything I can to prevent that.”

“He wanted to leave me in pieces in front of the Ministry.”

“He always did have a flair for the dramatic.”

James snorted, but didn’t look particularly amused. “Am I going to survive this? Is there any chance?”

Elena resumed her ministrations. “I don’t know.”

 

The sun was just setting when Elena was finally able to move him into the back bedroom and secure him. She almost turned to leave, but decided to sit down instead. Something in her was afraid to be alone right now. James was laying back in the bed with his hands underneath his head, she tried to pretend he looked relaxed, but she had always promised not to lie to herself.

“Your mother, when did she...die?” James asked her suddenly, startling her out of staring at him. It took her a moment to process his question, and then she wished she hadn’t. Elena knew if she shut her eyes she would be seeing it all over again.

“Just over a year ago, it was last summer.”

James looked confused. “I had always heard rumors that she had left at around the time you started at Hogwarts.”

Elena laughed harshly. “He arranged for her disappearance to appear as though she had abandoned us, and looking back, I think she was planning on taking me and running. I think that’s why he snapped like he did. He doesn’t take betrayal lightly.” She bit at her nail for a moment, trying to keep her breaths even. “He kept her locked up and tested out spells on her. He was trying to perfect his masterpiece and having a test subject was enough for him to keep her alive for a very long time. Also, it turned out to be great leverage against me, I didn’t step a toe out of line. I didn’t even consider it.” She risked a glance back at James and saw him look away, as if he was embarrassed for staring.

“You couldn’t have told anyone? Did you really think no one could help her?”

“Our house was under Fidelius and my father was the secret keeper. I couldn’t tell anyone where she was.” They were both silent for a while, and Elena could feel the heaviness of her exhaustion settling over her. The sun was sinking lower, casting long shadows in the room.

“A few months ago I would have told you that I would have welcomed something like this. A chance to show how brave I was when I escaped my kidnappers and saved the girl,” he laughed. “Instead I’m hoping the girl can save me and realizing I’m fairly useless.”

“Don’t give up on those dreams just yet. I have a little Slytherin advice, if you don’t mind it. Wait patiently for the right opportunities and don’t ever give up on what you are trying to achieve. Especially when survival is on the line.” Elena pulled his wand from her robe pocket and twirled it between her fingers. He watched the movement, and she put it back in her pocket. She couldn’t say or think anything more.

 

 


	17. The Struggle....is Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not over yet.

**Scorpius**

Rose wrapped him tightly in a hug and Scorpius buried his face in the comforting smell of her hair.

“Dad didn’t want me coming over at all, but Mum told him to stop being ridiculous and let me help. They are letting you help after all, and I am of age.”

Scorpius managed a smile, but just barely. “I’m glad you’re here, it feels like we have a better chance now.”

“Tell me what you know,” Rose prompted.

Scorpius led her over to his desk and pulled out the diary and his notes. “We have a list of possible hideouts, a disturbingly long list of groups that might be after the spell her father is selling, and then some information on the spell itself. There isn’t much though, it seems like she was restricted in how much she could even write down.”

They settled in to pore over the notes and brainstorm. Rose was quick to catch on and they soon began brainstorming ideas.

“If the spell takes pieces of an unbreakable vow and the imperius curse that would explain most of it. There should also be something similar to a tongue-tying curse since she is physically unable to speak of what she knows, but she can write down some of the information. Do you think there is a reason she didn’t give this to you sooner?”

Scorpius shrugged. “There could be, she’s always tried to keep me from getting any more involved. I’m not sure if she thought it was too risky before, if she just couldn’t, or if she simply hadn’t thought of a way around her restrictions before then,” he finished with a sigh. “She had to have been planning ahead when she planted the diary though, at least since the Quidditch tournament,” Rose observed.

“I think she has been planning it since she gave me the pendant on my birthday actually,” Draco mused.

Rose sat up straight suddenly. “I wonder if she couldn’t give you the diary then. I wonder if the spell is losing its hold on her, or perhaps the prolonged lack of contact with the caster is lessening its influence. It could perhaps even be that she is slowly finding a way to fight it off. That would explain so much, she seemed to be dancing around telling for a while now.”

Draco nodded and leaned forward eagerly. “The last day at Hogwarts she was able to tell me that she couldn’t tell me what was going on. It was more than she had ever said before.”

“Now we just need to figure out how to remove the spell.”

“And if it’s an unbreakable vow?”

Rose laced her fingers with his. “We will find a way. If we don’t try just because others would say it’s impossible, then it definitely is. Don’t give up hope just yet.”

Scorpius knew she was right, so he squeezed her hand back and put his mind to the task at hand.

“Now,” Rose said. “How do you suppose her father is summoning her? The wards Uncle Harry had put up would have alerted him to an owl coming in. He has some other way, do you think...” she paused. “Do you think it could be something like the Dark Mark?”

“It could be something as simple as the pendant she gave me.”

“I think the biggest risk is trying to remove it. It would be safer if it was just neutralized, like when Voldemort was killed and the Dark Marks just became inactive and faded. If her father isn’t killed, and we try to remove a spell this powerful, it could damage her mind or even kill her.” Scorpius thumbed absent-mindedly through an old spell book as he thought about Rose’s concerns. It really wasn’t an option to leave Elena under her father’s influence, she would always be a danger to herself and everyone around her. Her life would never be her own. Rose’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“I just realized something from the notes she had written here, I think Elena is mostly aware even while she is under the spell. It’s very different from the Imperius in that respect. I still don’t see how he tied it into the unbreakable vow so neatly, though I suppose if it was easy it would have been done before,” she finished with a sigh.

“I think that gives her a fighting chance, and Merlin knows she’s a fighter,” Scorpius said with an almost smile.

 

**Elena**

“The Ministry is getting closer to discovering us, I think it’s time we put some pressure on Potter to cooperate.”

Elena felt her stomach drop, but kept her expression disinterested. “Your plan?”

“I think we ought to take the muggle route and cut off his finger, send it to his father with a warning to back off.”

Elena could see James face pale, fingers curling protectively into his palm as he determinedly didn’t look at either of them.

“Might make his father panic and rush in. I think we should try rewarding good behaviour before doing any permanent damage to the hostage, Gryffindors never react predictably to those sorts of tactics.” Elena smoothed a finger down James’ wand in her robe pocket. “Send Potter information on the group that double-crossed you on payment. Offer to return his son if they are all captured and the Ministry backs off.”

Her father hummed, his finger tapping against his lips. “Two birds with one stone, the Ministry working for us, instead of against us.” He grinned widely. “Such a smart girl.”

“Should I write the letter, or will you?”

“I will, get back to work on that research. Since you can’t go back to school next year you might as well start making yourself useful.”

Her father swept from the room humming an upbeat tune under his breath and Elena had to bite her tongue to keep from letting out a long sigh of relief. From the corner of her eye she could see some of the tension leaving James’ shoulders. How long could she keep this up? Eventually some other offer for James would be worth more to her father than keeping the Ministry off of his back, she knew he wasn’t planning on staying in England forever. Knowing his sense of humor he might just kill James for fun before they left the country to leave Potter a little surprise. Elena had to grip the table to steady herself as she thought of kind, green eyes darkened with grief as his first born was killed in some dank cell by a madman.

“Elena,” said James quietly. She turned her head away from the book she had open and met his eyes. “Thank you.”

“This is my fault, don’t thank me.”

“You said you didn’t have a choice.”

Elena looked away. “I dragged you into this.”

“This isn’t your fault. I grabbed you that night, not the other way around.”

Her father shouted for her from upstairs, so Elena turned reluctantly away and walked out of the room. This old house was smaller than the old manor this whole mess had begun in, but it was deceptively large inside from a judicious use of wizard spaces. It was two stories tall above ground and had two other levels below ground, James was being held in the first basement. The grungy walls were blank of portraits, though you could see lighter spots where they had once hung. After being undisturbed for so long the air smelled musty and dense, she had tried cleaning what she could but it just seemed to move the dust around.

Her father was waiting for her in what she supposed would be the library. The shelves were empty except for cobwebs and owl droppings.

“It’s time to refresh the spell. Sit.”

Elena felt all the air leave her lungs, but she sat. There was no choice, not when he spoke with intent like that. He walked over to stand in front of her and looked down, his grey eyes cold. He suspected, he had to. Perhaps it was her swift exit from the werewolf camp. Perhaps it was her reluctance to cut off James’ finger. Perhaps he was just paranoid. She pulled her robe up just enough to reveal the mark on her thigh, he had placed it where it wouldn’t be easily seen. He had joked at the time that You-Know-Who was a fool for making his followers so easily identified. He claimed it was always better to hide these things.

The wand burned against the mark, but feeling his will wash over her again was just as cold as always. Everything faded to shades of grey and Elena felt herself sinking. It was quicksand in her mind, if she struggled against it she sunk in deeper, so she was still. She closed her eyes and let it grip her mind how it wanted. It was going to be so hard to fight her way back to the surface, she felt so much more numb than she had remembered. But she knew she had to...had to....

 

She had to research for her father.

 

 

 


	18. Don't Just Grab It!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gryffindors don't think things through, and Slytherins are paranoid.

**Scorpius**

Harry Potter and several other aurors were at the Manor after escorting the rest of Harry’s family to his inlaw’s house, though Rose was coming by with her mother and Potter’s wife soon. They had finally decided it would be safer if the kids stayed with the Weasleys, so Potter’s house was left empty except for a few detection charms. The aurors had set up their base at Malfoy Manor instead, consulting with Scorpius’ father often.

Scorpius was just coming back downstairs when a large tawny owl was let in the house.

“Who is that owl from?” Asked Ron as he stepped forward to take the letter. Draco pulled him back roughly before he could touch it.

“If you don’t know who it’s from you shouldn’t be touching it,” he said harshly. “Can you see who it is for?”

Ron leaned down, but chagrined, kept his distance as well as he could. “It’s addressed to Harry.” Ron shouted for him and he broke off from his discussion with another auror to run over. Draco had already begun casting curse detection spells when Scorpius walked over to join them. Before long, no less than five people had cast a variety of spells on the letter.

“There isn’t a bit of magic on that letter Harry. Should be safe,” Ron said finally.

Harry nodded and pulled the letter out quickly, Scorpius nails were biting into his palm as he waited for Harry to finish reading the letter.

“It’s from Sebastian Hunt. He is demanding that we track down a group that double crossed him and back off of our search for him, if we comply, he says he will return James,” Harry said as he sat down heavily.

“If not?” Ron prompted.

“He said he would give James to Elias Burgess.”

Ron paled, and Scorpius looked towards his father, who seemed just as disturbed. He had never heard that name before.

“Burgess, as in Greyback’s favorite?” Draco asked.

Harry nodded. “He has a personal vendetta against me as well after I was able to organize a raid that captured half his men over a year ago. Last time we met I almost killed him in our duel.”

Rose, Hermione, and Ginny arrived then and Scorpius immediately gripped Rose’s hand tightly when she came to stand next to him. Even now Ron was visibly disturbed by their proximity, but he was too involved with the discussion to make any comments. Rose was silent, but calm, beside him as everyone was caught up on the contents of the letter. Ginny was pacing the room furiously while Hermione had been left to examine the letter in more detail with Draco. Scorpius knew from stories how his father had treated her during school, but it was hard to reconcile with how his father talked of her now. The unease between them was obvious as he watched them, but Scorpius knew it would thaw as they continued brainstorming. With a tug on Rose’s hand he led her out of the study and out onto back verandah.

“How are you holding up?” He asked as they settled onto a padded bench.

“Well enough. Mum is so stressed though. I overheard her talking with Dad last night and it was rough. She kept saying that Uncle Harry had already lost enough and that it wasn’t right for a person to have to lose their parents and a child.” Rose sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. “They have to get him back and soon. Everyone is going to lose it otherwise.”

“No one is giving up hope yet,” Scorpius tried to reassure her.

“It’s not that, it’s just,” she paused. “We know he is still alive, but, is he hurt? Is he being hurt right now? And what if the aurors can’t track down that group quickly enough for Hunt? Someone like Burgess would hurt James if he got half a chance. Dad told us some stories about him last year until Mum shouted at him for it, and he’s terrifying.” The thought made Scorpius sick to his stomach, so he wrapped Rose up in a hug.

“James is a tough, cocky Gryffindor. No matter what happens, he’ll survive it.”

Rose sighed against his shoulder and Scorpius just held her as they stared out at the sunset. Red and gold splashed across the horizon reminding him of Hogwarts, of home.

 

**James**

James had already lost any sense of how much time had passed since he had ended up in that cold cell in the old manor. They had spent at least a week in that cabin the woods, but since then? The only improvement was that this bedroom was considerably more comfortable than the cell at the manor or the werewolf camp. James realized he was actually missing the cabin in the woods and huffed out a laugh. He was losing it.

The door thumped open and James was relieved to see Elena walk in alone.

“Would it be too much to hope you don’t have bad news?”

Her eyes didn’t even flick towards him, she just sat down in her chair and pulled the book she had been reading a little closer.

“Elena?”

Silence.

Something was wrong. She was gone, whoever was in the room wasn’t her. She seemed like a walking corpse and she was moving abnormally slowly.

“Elena, whatever has happened to you, you have to fight it. Please hear this, please fight it. I can’t survive this without you,” he said urgently. Was she imperiused? Surely she could fight off something like that, she was too stubborn to let someone take over like that.

“I’m going to get you out of here with me, I won’t leave you behind, I promise. I’m going be brave and save the girl.”

As the day passed, James felt more and more tense. He tried to get a reaction from her as often as he could, but she didn’t so much as twitch. He knew she wasn’t just trying to keep a blank face and ignore him because they were being watched, there was something definitely wrong. She didn’t even look him in the eye when she passed him his meal.

 

Maybe it was time for him to do something rash.

 

 


	19. The Inevitable Collision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things always get worse before they get better.

**Elena**

Her quill scratched steadily on the parchment and the noise echoed loudly against the stone walls and floor. The research was progressing and that was....important. There was a voice behind her speaking again, but it wasn’t his. It kept talking and talking and talking and she knew she should be annoyed, but she was still in that grey place. Everything inside felt cold and numb. She would just ignore the voice, unless it became important.

There were footsteps and the door opened, Elena was ready with her wand pointed towards the intruder, but it was just him.

“Elena, come with me now. You will help me prepare for the arrival of our newest customers and you will get our guests what they need.”

Her quill fell to the table forgotten, and she hurried after her father. The voice shouted something as she left, but she didn’t really know what it had said. Upon reaching the ground floor she could hear loud laughter and the sounds of men talking rowdily among themselves. She recognized something, ah yes, werewolves. Elias Burgess. Something bright and red pierced through the numbness, it was hot in her gut, but it was drowned out quickly.

“Elias!” Her father said warmly as he pulled the dirty were into a hug. Elias smirked at her over her father’s shoulder, and perhaps he expected something in return, but she still felt blank. As her father stepped away to greet the other newcomers Elias stalked forward towards her.

“Hey love, not happy to see me? I’ll admit we parted under, less than desirable circumstances before. The wolf isn’t much of a gentleman that close to the full moon,” he said with a mocking grin.

Elena looked at him for a moment, but then her gaze slipped past him to her father. Perhaps it would be time to start preparations soon. Elias’ grin slipped into something more irritated. “There’s no call to be ignoring me,” he said, his tone bordering on angry as he drug a grimy finger across her cheek.

“Do you have everything you need?” She asked tonelessly.

“What is wrong with her?” He asked whipping around towards her father. “She looks half dead and she’s bloody cold to the touch.” Elias glanced back at her, his face torn between anger and disgust.

“Mmm,” her father agreed distractedly. “Sometimes the spell takes a couple of days to settle after it has been refreshed, especially if they struggle, and of course she’s too stubborn not to.” Elias poked her again in the cheek, leaning in close to look into her eyes, but she didn’t move or seem annoyed.

“Bloody weird,” he muttered before stalking off. Elena only had to wait a few more minutes before she was given another task that kept her busy. Things seemed less hazy when she had a purpose, waiting was the worst part. Every time she stopped she felt like she was forgetting something important.

Wards were laid out around the entire property, the entire house was spelled to fight for them, and the werewolves were going to be spread out all around the meeting area and every entrance to the house.

“I will not have my customers attempting to take the spell and run without paying again, it’s insulting,” her father insisted as he went over the plans with Elias Burgess again.

“And my payment?”

“You will be paid in full, Elena will be watching the Potter boy and he will be out of the way. Your little prize won’t get damaged unless you and your men prove to be absolutely useless.”

Elias growled at her father, but nodded and walked away to pass along the orders to his rag-tag group of men.

Elena cocked her head to the side, Potter. The prisoner. There was something to remember....

 

**Scorpius**

“We've found something,”said Ron as he burst into the study. Harry was on his feet faster than you could blink. “There is a group we’ve had under surveillance for a long while now, even before James was taken. Our analysts believe they just set up a meeting with Hunt.”

“We have to be there if there is a chance to take Hunt,” Harry said fervently. Ginny stepped up beside him and gripped his hand tightly.

Ron nodded. “I agree, but everyone is saying it’s too risky. We’ll have to lean on the Head Auror a bit to get authorization.”

“It's a chance, we have to move now and I won't wait, not with my son's life on the line.”

Ron put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll stand with you no matter what.”

Scorpius' father stepped forward. “See if we can get authorization, and quickly. Either way, I want to be on this raid. I think I have the best chance of helping Elena.”

“I want to help to, I’ll go with the raid,” Scorpius said stepping up next to his father.

“Absolutely not,” Draco said quickly.

“I am of age!” Scorpius protested.

“Barely,” his father snapped. “Let me protect you for a little while longer. You will stay here.”

Scorpius pressed his lips tightly together to keep himself from arguing further with his father. He knew intellectually that his father had a point, but his heart could not so easily back down to reason. He wanted to find Elena and he wanted to fight.

 

**James**

The door creaked open slowly letting in a little light from the hall into the dim room. James’ whole day went south when he was Elias Burgess saunter into the room.

“James Potter, we meet again.”

“Can’t tell you how not pleased I am to see you,” James said easily. He had time to be afraid later, and honestly just didn’t want to give Burgess the satisfaction right now.

“Oh, so now you speak? You weren’t so friendly at our last meeting,” he said as he pulled a stool around with a flourish and made himself comfortable directly in front of the cell. James scoffed, but didn’t respond.

“Don’t clam up now. I’m bored and thought we might have a little conversation, you are going to be mine after this is all over after all. Or did no one tell you?” He asked as James glared at him.

“Do you realize how stereotypically villainous you sound?” James asked with a bored expression.

“Do you realize how little your bravado is fooling anyone?” Elias taunted back. “They aren’t turning out Gryffindors like they used to.”

There was a quiet footstep behind Burgess and they both turned quickly to see Elena walk quietly into the room. Her eyes glazed over the both of them and she continued towards the workbench that her research books and notes were still laid out on.

Elias turned towards James with an exceptionally disturbing grin. “Oh this should be fun, I always like to do little experiments. Little Ellie has been very strange today, she hasn’t responded to a single thing I’ve said, but I think she has a soft spot for you. Or at least, you should hope she does.” He hopped off the stool and whirled around to face her. “What do you say Ellie, love? You want to play a game?”

Elena didn’t even turn to face him, and James dug his nails into his palm. He was defenseless. Elias whistled a little tune under his breath as he turned slowly back to James.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” he said as he drew his wand with a flourish. James knew what was coming, but for a moment there was just the waiting. There was just looking into Elias’ eyes determined to show no fear and no hesitation.

Everything was pain and burning and James felt the scream being ripped from his throat as every muscle seized in agony.

Then, just as suddenly, there was nothing but the sound of Elias yelling and something heavy thumping against a wall.

“You have not yet completed the agreed duties and are not yet able to collect your payment. You will not damage the leverage until it is yours to do with as you wish. You will leave the room or I will tell my father you have attempted to betray the deal you have bound yourself to.”

“You’ve been acting like a dead person all day and this is what you react to?” He shouted at her as he struggled against the incarcerous that had him bound tightly against the wall.

Elena cocked her head, “I am just following orders. Protect the prisoner until the deal is complete. You are violating the agreement, and you will leave.”

Elias growled at her as she dropped him and looked back over at James who was now on his hands and knees and still gasping for breath. For a moment, James thought he wasn’t going to leave, his eyes flickering between himself and Elena. Instead, he stormed out of the room slamming the door shut behind him. James took a deep breath and laid back on the floor.

“Thank-you,” he croaked out, his throat feeling very dry. Elena was still standing in the middle of the room, her wand now lowered, her brows pinched slightly together. “Elena? Are you okay?”

“James?” She asked, her eyes finally focusing on his face.

“Yes,” he said slowly. “Are you ok?”

“I’m cold,” she said almost at a whisper. Her eyes were already clouding back over.

“Can I help? Can I do anything?”

“I’m not allowed. You’re the prisoner,” she stepped backwards slowly, then shook her head and walked back to her workbench. She seemed lost again, but her hands were shaking just a little.

“Elena, remember my promise. I will get you out of here. I won’t leave you here.”

She did pause this time and glanced back at him for a moment, looking directly into his eyes, before she turned back to her work. James decided to take it as a good sign, she was coming back to herself. There was a spark of life in her again, even if it was small.

James pulled himself back up into a sitting position and decided to think over his options, he had to get out today if he wanted to survive, because if he was handed over to Elias he knew he’d be dead within a day. If not sooner, Burgess didn’t strike him as the patient type.

Elena looked up, her body suddenly tense.

“The buyers are here,” she said quietly. James stood up slowly and began to pace. Merlin, there wasn’t much time. The minutes kept ticking by, Elena staring blankly at the wall, James pacing in his cell and trying to think of any way he escape. A squealing alarm startled them both and Elena jumped to her feet.

“Intruders,” she muttered as she cast a spell that showed a wavering image of several small groups rushing over the property line. It was the aurors.

The door burst open and Elena threw up a protego just in time to block a barrage of spells from Elias Burgess and another werewolf.

“Our deal is off the table, hand over Potter!” He yelled at her as he threw another spell. Elena was already jumping to the side and casting several counterspells in quick succession. There was no more time for threats as the spells flew overhead. Elena had thrown the workbench down and was hunched behind it. She cast an expulso that blew out the door and part of the wall. James pressed himself towards the back wall of his cell as the second werewolf blasted open the door to his cell and darted in towards him. He suddenly remembered charging at Scorpius the same way in the duel and stepped under the man’s wide swing and came up with a punch before slamming him into the wall as hard as he could. They began wrestling over the wand, ignoring the sounds of explosion and the heat of a fire flaring up behind them because there was no time to check on what was happening. James was finally able to slam his forehead into the man’s nose and his grip loosened just enough for James to be able to jerk the wand away. He had never cast a spell faster than that stun in his life. Scrambling up he turned to find Elena bleeding from her side and stumbling towards him. Burgess charred legs were sticking out where part of the ceiling and wall had collapsed onto him.

Every part of James hated himself for what he did, but he didn’t hesitate as he cast the stun on Elena. He darted forward to catch her as she fell and tucked her wand into his waistband. He quickly located his wand in her robe pocket and the warmth of it had never been a more welcome feeling. The werewolf’s wand joined Elena’s in his waistband and he cast the only minor healing spell he knew on the large cut on her side before hoisting her over his shoulder and peeking out of the room. He could hear fighting overhead and to the left, so he went right out of the room and hoped for a little luck.

The smell of smoke was strong in the hallway, though James had no idea how close or far the fire was. Elena was bloody heavy for such a small girl, and his leg still ached where it had been splinched, but James knew he couldn’t slow down now. A door burst open to reveal stairs, and a werewolf James recognized. He almost dropped Elena as he dodged to the left and threw a counter-curse at the attacker. His next stun was faster than the werewolf’s protego and it knocked him back into the wall with a loud crack. James repositioned his grip on Elena and ran for the stairs, it seemed like the only way out so far. He paused halfway up to cast a disillusionment spell, even though it would offer minimal protection when there were more than likely people looking specifically for him, but it had to be better than nothing.

As he stepped out onto the ground level he could the bright flash of stunners through the windows. The whole house shook as he ran down the hallway away from where most of the fighting seemed to be and he tripped. They went down hard, James taking the brunt of the fall as he tried to roll and protect Elena. An outside door down the hall burst open and two men wearing black robes burst inside and ran straight towards him. He crouched over Elena and tried to cast quickly enough to keep up, but two on one against men with experience was a losing proposition. James heart almost leapt from his chest as he saw his father run in through the door clearly in pursuit of the two men.

“Dad!” He screamed as he cast another protego just barely in time. James could hear his father calling his name in return as he cast spells faster than James had ever seen. As his Uncle Ron came through the door as well, the first man fell, then the second just as quickly now that it was two versus two. James jumped up from his position over Elena and met his father in a tight hug as Ron bound the two attackers and made sure they were thoroughly stunned.

“I thought I’d never see you again. I thought I’d lost you,” his father said hugging him so tightly he couldn’t breathe. As his father pulled back, he saw the blood that drenched James’ left side. “Are you hurt?”

“No, no, it’s Elena. Some kind of cutting curse, I tried to heal it but I couldn’t.”

Another door burst open and a large group fell into the hallway. His father shoved James behind him, both Ron and his father on the attack immediately. James was obviously distracted when he was shoved forward and felt the wands ripped from his waistband. Elena didn’t bother stunning him before she ran in the opposite direction of the fight, but she did look back at him.

“Elena! No!” He screamed as he immediately started to chase after her, but his father grabbed his arm and jerked him back. “Dad, I promised I wouldn’t leave her here. I can’t just let her go!”

“Not alone James, and not right now. We will get her out, but I am keeping you safe.”

 

**Elena**

There was something like coherency filtering back into her mind, she knew he was controlling her. She also knew James had just escaped and that felt like wings on her heart. She still had to go and fight for her father, but James, good, innocent James, he was free. Urging her legs a little faster she skid around a corner and found her father backed into a corner facing off against Draco Malfoy and two aurors she didn’t recognize.

“Your father was a man worth dealing with you stupid brat!” Her father shouted at Malfoy as he spotted Elena in the doorway. “Kill them!” He screamed at her.

Elena’s heart sunk to the pit of her stomach even as she lifted her wand and cast a spell at the aurors. The cold grip on her mind threatened to drag her down as she attempted to balance the least lethal spells she could manage against her father’s demands to kill them. Her side had reopened and the blood loss was beginning to make her feel woozy. Maybe she could delay long enough that her body would just give out, not even her father’s spell could keep her fighting if she was dead. One of the aurors darted in towards her father, and he was so close to him. She cast a strong confringo that knocked back both him and her father, then cast another immediately, almost catching the auror without a shield and knocking them both back again. Her father’s angry shout made the spell push into her mind like a battering ram and for just a moment, she felt herself sinking back into the grey place. In her moment of hesitation, Elena was hit with a jelly-legs jinx by one of the aurors that caused her to falter just enough that when the stunning spell hit her, she couldn’t block it. As she was falling she saw Malfoy darting in from the side, a knife in his hand. The blade glowed white as he struck.

The knife sunk into her father’s neck and Elena felt as though her mind had been severed from her body. She felt empty, sounds and screaming rushing in her ears, but she couldn’t move and she couldn’t feel. There were grey eyes over her, something brushing over her skin, the tingle of magic spreading through her. She wanted to kick up to the surface, but the darkness was flooding in from the sides like a tidal wave. Breathing was getting harder and harder and.....

 

 

 


	20. Recovery

**James**

She was so still and so white. She hadn’t moved in a week. There were monitoring spells writing out her vital signs on a scroll hovering next to her bed, no changes at all. She was breathing, her heart was beating, but she wasn’t waking up no matter what they did.

James rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, his fingers catching on the scar he had been left with, and let out a long sigh. Knowing Burgess was dead took a lot of the sting out of knowing the man had left him marked for the rest of his life. Now he just needed Elena to wake up.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you like I wanted to. Looks like I didn’t get to save the girl after all,” he said with a harsh laugh. Instead of giving in to his urge to cry he reached over and gently slipped her hand into his. “Mum used to hold my hand like this and pet my hair when I got sick as a little kid. Seeing as you don’t have your mum to take care of you anymore, guess it falls on the rest of the people who...who care for you to fill in.” Her forehead was just as cold as her hands, but her hair was soft as he brushed his fingers through it slowly.

“Scorpius gave me the diary, said he thought I deserved some explanations since I got drug into all of this,” he paused to take a deep breath. “Not sure how you kept your head up all these years after everything your father did. You’re so strong, too strong and too stubborn to keep on sleeping like this.” But she didn’t wake up, not even as the hours slowly slipped away.

James was still there, hand in hand with her, when Scorpius and Rose stopped by that evening. He guiltily removed his hand as they walked in, not really sure he could explain it to anyone else. Scorpius gave him an odd look, but didn’t comment. Everyone had been walking a bit on eggshells around him since he had gotten back as if they thought he was so traumatized that he might break down in tears at the slightest thing. The first forty-eight hours had been an exhausting whirlwind of hugs, giving statements to the aurors, getting checked by healers, and having food shoved at him. His mum and dad hadn’t left his side the entire time. On the third day they finally gave in to his demands to see Elena and he sat with her until he was drug back home for more sleep and more potions for the ever-present ache in his leg. That was going to be another scar, but the ache would be gone soon as long as he kept up with the exercises to stretch the newly healed muscles.

“The healers and Scorpius’ father have come up with another idea that they think they’ll be ready to try early afternoon tomorrow,” Rose said quietly as she laid a comforting hand on James’ shoulder.

“Did it seem promising?”

“Yea, it did,” Scorpius responded. “They think they have a pretty firm grasp on why she’s like this now, they weren’t really sure until last night.”

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence Rose excused herself to go find something to drink, and James was left alone with Scorpius. They both stared down at Elena before James could screw up his courage enough to speak.

“I’m sorry,” he finally blurted out. Scorpius looked up startled.

“I’ve been a prat,” James continued. “I just, there’s really no excuse, and I think you already know the reasons why. I know what you and your father did for Elena and for me, and before I thank you, I just needed to apologize. So, I’m sorry. I was awful to you and you didn’t deserve it.”

Scorpius swallowed, looking very uncomfortable, but nodded his head in acceptance. “It’s in the past, and you saved Elena. She means more to me than any sort of grudge.”

James stood and held out his hand. “Thank-you for what you did to help.”

Scorpius stood as well and shook his hand firmly. “I’m glad you made it out. Thank-you for doing what you could to protect Elena.”

James nodded as well, and after that, the silence was much more comfortable.

 

That night, James couldn’t sleep. He just stared at the ceiling with a sick feeling in stomach as he replayed the last few weeks over and over in his mind. Laying in his own bed felt like a dream, but he kept waiting to wake up and see Elena sitting across from him in the room. He cast another tempus and stared blearily at the numbers, it had only been ten minutes since the last time he had cast the spell. James kicked off the covers and got out of bed. He couldn’t sit in this room any more. He pulled his clothes on quickly and slipped downstairs and outside to the broom shed. His broom was back on it’s rack, even though he knew it had been left out in the forest when he had been apparated with Elena. He ran his hand down it gently, the memories running through his mind again.

When he stepped back outside the wind had picked back up and the sky had cleared to reveal all the bright stars. He mounted his broom quickly and shot up towards the unattainable bright points. The speed of his ascent stung his eyes, but he kept going up until he was well above the trees and then curved backwards and began a quick descent back down towards the quidditch pitch. When he leveled out his Dad was waiting for him on his own broom. He didn’t say anything, just gave him a little nod and released a snitch. James couldn’t help but smile at that, and his heart felt lighter than it had since he first saw his dad in that hallway.

 

It was past noon before they were all summoned to the hospital for the final test. A kind-faced healer had made sure there was room for Scorpius, his father, and James in the room during the test. The Malfoys had been appointed Elena’s guardians and Scorpius had apparently insisted that his father allow James to be present for this attempt as well, for which he was very grateful. The three of them were standing nervously to the side while the team of healers set up around the still form of Elena. James could feel his heart pounding in his ears, everything the healers did just going by in a blur. He took in a steadying breath as the healers began to cast. Three of them stood around her, one on each side, and one at the foot of the bed. They chanted in unison, their wands motions very carefully synchronized. As the spell began to reach its crescendo, they all touched the tips of their wands to the mottled mark on her thigh. As they lifted the wands it looked as though they were pulling a dark grey smoke from her leg. It followed the wands upward and James could feel its cold presence from where he stood. Color began to return to Elena’s cheeks even before the spell was completely drawn out from her. As the healers carefully wrapped the spell in layers of wards, she began to twitch. James held himself back, but just barely.

The healers swarmed around her, the Chief Healer shooting a big smile towards the three of them. “I know this looks scary, but this is a good sign!”

Elena’s eyes snapped opened and she took a deep gasping breath. James slid down the wall in relief. She was awake. It was a few minutes before the healers were reassured that everything had gone as well as they had hoped, and then Scorpius and his father was rushing forward to her bedside. Scorpius pulling her into a tight hug, and reassuring her over and over that she was going to be was fine.

“James, I saw him with his father, but is he okay?” He heard her ask.

“Yes, he’s fine. Been bloody worried about you though,” Scorpius said with a smirk over at James, who was still sitting on the floor. Elena followed his look and saw James, who awkwardly stood, not really sure what to say now. He had said everything while she was asleep, and now it was so much harder. She looked as distant as she had when they first met.

Draco cleared his throat. “Scorpius and I will go and update the others, we will be back to check on you in about thirty minutes.” Scorpius followed him out of the room, but neither Elena nor James glanced at them as they left.

“Bit strange to not see you every day after spending the last few weeks with you,” James said breaking the silence. “Almost made me miss our nice little stay at that cabin in the woods.”

“Merlin James, it’s not bloody funny,” she said with a wavering voice.

“Too soon, I guess,” he said with an attempt at a smile.

“I almost got you killed. I had to leave you helpless and alone to be hurt. It will always be too soon, you idiot,” she said as tears started to run down her face. James hesitated for just a moment, then screwed up his courage and sat down next to her on the bed and pulled her into a hug. It was strange to think back over the last few weeks and realize that they had never really touched. She was stiff in his arms, but she wasn’t pushing him away, so James just held on as her sobs grew and the stiffness faded away. Without thinking he found himself running his fingers through her hair and whispering over and over that they were safe and she was free.

 

 


	21. Apologies

**Elena**

The healers ran tests every day for a week, hesitant to release her in case of unforeseen complications. The only thing that got her through that week without losing her mind was knowing that James Potter was going to arrive at eight every morning. He always stayed until about four or five in the evening before he headed home to have dinner with his family. Scorpius, Draco, and Rose visited often as well, but James always stayed the whole day. He was fairly quiet the first couple of days, but as the week drug on she began to see more of the old James from school. He would never be exactly the same, who could be? But he had regained some of his carefree charm, and his grin came a lot easier.

“I heard a rumor they are letting you out today,” he remarked as he walked in that morning.

Elena let her head fall back against the pillow. “They’re going to have to put me in the mental ward if they don’t. The nurses won’t leave me alone and its driving me insane.”

“The whole family is leaving tomorrow afternoon for the World Cup,” James said as he pulled a chair up to her bedside.

“Yes, so you’ve said. Every day. For the past three days.”

James let out a long-suffering sigh. “You’re invited, you know. Scorpius has already said he will be attending with Rose and there is an extra bunk for you.”

“No one is going to want me there...”

James interrupted. “Stop saying that, we’ve been over this! No one blames you, not even my mum is mad at you.”

Elena stared resolutely out the window and ran her fingers over the edge of her blanket. She knew James was probably giving her that look that was pity, irritation, and worry all mixed up together.

“Albus hasn’t stopped by yet. I’d like to apologize before we return to school.”

James slumped down in his seat. “He’s not mad Elena, he just,” he sighed heavily. “He’s not sure you wanted him to come. He thinks you never thought of him as a friend is all.”

“I wanted to.”

“Then come with us tomorrow and tell him. Make it right.”

It was Rose that finally convinced her to join them at the tournament. Scorpius just shrugged in sympathy when Elena looked to him to save her from Rose’s pleading brown eyes.

 

Stepping out of the hospital lifted a weight from her shoulders. It made the whole ordeal seem more completely over. She was surprised to find herself looking forward to being around people at the Quidditch game. Something about sitting alone in a room at the Manor seemed very depressing.

Since it was the final game of the World Cup, the grounds were completely covered in tents and full of excited wizards as far as the eye could see. Elena walked through the crowds close behind Scorpius and tried to let it all sink in. She could enjoy this, she could just relax. There were no pressing tasks to weigh on her, no risk to anyone, just a quidditch game with friends.

“Let’s stop and get some cauldron cakes before we join everyone else, I’m a bit hungry,” she said tugging on Scorpius’ sleeve.

“Right,” he turned to shout after Draco “Dad! Elena and I will catch up. We are going to grab some snacks.” Draco nodded and continued on without them. They ended up buying out half the trolley as Scorpius kept insisting so and so would want some fizzing whizzbies, and of course Mr. Weasley loved pumpkin pasties, and of course everyone would be thirsty after eating the cakes. The frazzled woman at the trolley boxed it all up for them and they carefully levitated the drinks in front of them as they maneuvered their way through the crowds.

James stood up with a big grin as Elena and Scorpius joined everyone in the Potter’s private box.

“Candy!” Shrieked Lily as she ran up to give Elena a hug and relieve her of a portion of her snacks.

“How are you Lily?” Elena asked as Scorpius helped her with the rest of the boxes.

“I am so excited for this game. I’ll be trying out for Quidditch this year, me and Al have been training out back and he says I’ll be a great Beater.”

Elena looked over at Albus who was smiling warmly in her direction. Some of the tension in her chest eased, things were fixable between them. Scorpius had taken the free seat next to Rose, so Elena found herself sitting between Albus and James, with Lily hanging over the balcony shouting encouragement at the players.

“Sorry I didn’t come and visit you,” Albus said quietly from her right.

“There’s nothing to apologize for. I obliviated you and used you, not really a good thing for a friend to do.”

“It’s already been forgiven,” Albus said with a nudge to her shoulder.

“I can undo it you know, I can take away the false memory and restore the original,” she said turning slightly to face him.

“Is it safe?”  
“Completely.”

Albus took a deep breath and nodded, so Elena pulled out her wand, which finally drew James attention.

“Everything alright?” He asked, concerned.

“It’s about to be,” Elena replied before concentrating on the spells she had gone over with the healers. It was fairly simple, really, since she was the one who had cast the original spells. She saw a brief flash of surprise go over Albus face, then he opened his eyes and laughed.

“Thank Godric I’m not as stupid as I thought I was.”

Elena couldn’t help but laugh then as well. “That was a terrible memory to put in there, I’m so sorry.”

Albus shrugged. “Could have been worse I suppose.”

As Elena settled back into her chair she could see James grinning at her the corner of her eye. She huffed and kicked the side of his leg.

“Don’t look so smug.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

 

The night before they were to return to school, Draco pulled Elena aside into the library.

“You seem to be recovering well,” he said as they settled into two chairs in front of the fireplace.

“Yes,” she agreed. “I’ve felt, well normal I guess.”

“The aurors have finally released your father’s body. They didn’t want me to tell you, but I thought you deserved the option of attending his burial if you wished.”

Elena stared down at her hands. She hadn’t felt any grief at his death, just an odd mixture of anger and relief.

“I don’t think I do. He might as well have been a stranger.”

Draco nodded in understanding. “As his only heir everything he had is yours. The aurors are wanting permission to search everything for illegal items, but I’ve been putting them off.”

“I can just give them a list. I will need some time though, some of the items and places are booby-trapped. I might actually have to go to a few of the places with the aurors, perhaps I can help on the weekends.”

“You need to relax and enjoy school for a while, let the aurors handle this mess for now.” Draco took a long drink from his glass before he continued. “The Prophet has run a few misleading stories, Potter and the others have done their best to set the record straight, but I’m sure there will be some students who want to believe the worst of you.”

“They’d only be half wrong.”

“When you could make a choice, you made the right one. That’s all that matters, don’t let them make you feel guilty for things that were not your fault.”

Elena met his eyes and nodded. “I will do my best.”

 

 


	22. It's a Long Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's hard to get back to normal....when there is no normal.

**James**

It was just past midnight and the back to school bash was raging on all around him, but James found himself sitting in a corner with a mostly full cup of some unidentifiable alcohol. Elena hadn’t shown and he knew he shouldn’t be disappointed since she had made it clear she had no intention of coming.

“James!” Someone squealed from his right just before they lunged into him with an awkward hug that he couldn’t even return with his arms trapped like they were. “I heard what had happened this summer and it was so awful. I can’t believe that Slytherin girl kidnapped you! None of us have ever trusted her, but...”

“What are you talking about?”

“Elena Hunt! We couldn’t believe they let a criminal back into school just like that! And you having to see her every day you poor thing,” cooed the girl as she leaned in closer. James shook her off in irritation.

“That wasn’t what happened at all, and she isn’t a criminal,” he snapped. “Do I even know you?”

Her face turned stormy instantly. “Of course you know me! We had no less than two study groups together last year alone and you kissed me at the end of the year party!”

James squinted at her. She was a short girl with shiny blonde hair that had suspiciously perfect waves and wearing a tight pink muggle dress. Pretty much exactly his type when he was drunk and not thinking.

“I, uh, you did seem familiar, I’m just not sure I caught your name.”

“Tiffany,” she said with a sickeningly sweet smile. Her mood swings were giving him whiplash.

“Well, Tiffany, I don’t know what you’ve heard about Elena, but she saved my life. The rest isn’t worth talking about.” James stood to go find another corner to sit in, one without a crazy blonde, but Tiffany just stood with him and looped her arm through his like she thought he was going to take her with him. “I’m, uh, actually leaving now.”

“I don’t mind, this party is super lame anyhow.”

“Right,” James said skeptically as he glanced around the room. Everyone was having a great time as far as he could see, Fred had gone all out getting decorations and good music. With a not so subtle jerk of his arm he was able to mostly free it from her grasp as he made his way towards the door, but she managed to grab onto his wrist again pretty much right away. As soon as they exited out of the Room of Requirement all of the noise from the party shut off abruptly. Tiffany was grinning at him in what he was sure she intended to be a flirtatious manner, and unfortunately he probably would have found it attractive last year, but now, he just didn’t find it interesting in the least. It all seemed like a waste of time and effort.

“Well, I’ll be heading back to my dorm now, good night.”

“Don’t be silly! I’ll walk you,” she said as she tried to loop her arm through his but James pulled away again.

“Suit yourself.” This girl was not one to be discouraged he thought with a grimace. She kept up chatter the entire walk back to the Gryffindor dorm that James didn’t bother to even pretend to be listening to. At the portrait, James said the password and thought that just maybe he’d be able to slip inside with no problems when she grabbed him and attempted to kiss him. James didn’t think he’d ever moved so fast in his life as when he dodged that kiss.

“Whoa, no, what are you doing?” He said as he stumbled back still pushing against her shoulders. She pouted at him.

“I just wanted a goodnight kiss! I was even the perfect gentleman and walked you back to your room.” She giggled at her own joke and James cringed.

“Look, I’m really sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but I’m not,” he paused. “I’m not interested in dating anyone right now. Or making out dark hallways after curfew,” he finished quickly when she started to interrupt. He stepped through the portrait quickly and let it shut on her protests. The common room was completely empty and James let himself slump down to the floor and breathe a sigh of relief. All he could remember from the year end party was seeing Elena throw her head back and laugh while they were dancing. At the time he had thought she was a fit girl and perhaps a way to get a dig in at Scorpius, now he just knew that he had never seen her laugh like that since and that made him sad.

 

The next morning Elena was leaving breakfast just as he was arriving, so he made the quick decision to just skip it entirely.

“Hey, haven’t seen you around all week,” he said as he jogged up beside her. She glanced around the hallway before nodding.

“I’ve been trying to get ahead on my homework since there is so much more studying to do this year.”

She seemed really uncomfortable, tension in every line of her body.

“Is everything alright?” He asked, confused.

“Peachy keen, James. Why wouldn’t it be?” She said, sarcasm dripping from every word. James grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop.

“Did I do something?”

Elena sighed and seemed to shake something off. “No, the Daily Prophet,” she let out a heavy sigh. “They ran an interview with an ‘unnamed source’ who claimed the Ministry knows I was involved with your kidnapping and the Malfoys bribed them to say I was being controlled through a spell that doesn’t exist.”

James saw red. “They can’t print that rubbish!”

“They can, and they did!” Elena jerked her arm away and rushed off down the hall. James tried to follow her, but he got stopped when he literally ran into Fred and Albus, when he looked back up she had disappeared.

 

That evening James dug through his trunk to pull out something he hadn’t used in ages. The Marauder’s Map was wrinkled and a bit worn, but it still worked like a charm. She wasn’t in her dorm and she wasn’t in any of the unused classrooms or the library, so he expanded his search out to the grounds. He smiled when he realized she was out on the Quidditch field.

He leaned the brooms against the base of the stands silently and tucked his hands into his pockets.

“You’ve been avoiding me. And Scorpius. And Albus. And Rose.”

Elena leaned her head forward until her hair fell around her face. This was the first time he had seen it down since that party.

“Why do you want to be around me?” She asked quietly.

“We’re friends, I like being around you,” he said nudging her with his shoulder. She lifted her eyes and searched his face for a long moment before turning her attention to the brooms.

“The brooms?”

“I get the impression you are wallowing in self-pity and thought you could use a distraction from your brooding. Fly with me.” Elena scoffed, but James just picked up the broom and tossed it to her. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

She gave in and followed him up into the air, he let her set the pace as she picked up speed. He just flew beside her as she flew in lazy circles above the Quidditch pitch. Eventually, he began to fly a little faster and Elena followed him. With a whoop he dived and did a spiral down towards the ground before pulling up with a flip. For a moment, he thought she was going to just ignore him when she shot straight up on her broom in a tight spin then did three backflips back down towards him. By the time she stopped her face was bright and she was laughing. It was just as great as he remembered.

“With flying like that I might have to recruit you to the Quidditch team this year.”

“Not a chance! I’d have to take your spot as Seeker and that would just be embarrassing for you.”

“You can’t keep up with me, I’m too fast for you.”

“Is that a challenge?” She asked with a grin. James was off like a shot, Elena just behind him and gaining ground quickly.

 

**Elena**

She put up a gravestone for her mother after a couple of weeks had gone by at school. She went alone, wanting this closure to be between just her and her mother. No one else had known her, and no one else had seen her die.

The empty grave was on top of the hill in a small graveyard just a few minutes away from Malfoy Manor. The sun was setting by the time she finished engraving the information and message onto the headstone.

 

Olivia Marchonne

1977 - 2019

Beloved Mother

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends

Elena was still trying to find peace in her new life. The lack of danger had finally given her time to grieve, and she found herself missing her mother more than she thought she would after so long without her. She blinked away tears as she looked up from the gravestone and looked out over the rolling hills, trying to remind herself that she and her mother were both free now.

 

Elena’s eyes shot open and she took a deep gasping breath as she woke up sobbing. She was so tired, but this happened every night. Memories blurring together with everything she had feared coming true. James screaming, blood, her father’s voice repeating over and over in her head. She cast a warming charm even though room was comfortable, when she woke up like this she always felt so cold. Elena summoned a Dreamless Sleep, a week of no sleep had left her feeling like a zombie the day before. Perhaps tomorrow she would be able to sleep without it. Perhaps.

 

Elena ran into a blur of pink and blonde as she rounded the corner.

“Excuse me,” she murmured as she stepped around the girl she had just walked into.

“I was looking for you actually.”

Elena looked up, confused. She recognized her as a Ravenclaw all the boys used to chase after, still chased after actually. A pretty, petite blonde from a wealthy, halfblood family was pretty much the dictionary definition of eligible these days.

“I read about you in the papers,” she began with a simpering smile. “I’m sure it was so awful for you, but I’m sure you don’t think it compares at all to what poor James suffered. I’ve talked to him about it some, and, well, let’s just say he was glad to have someone who would really listen.” Elena raised an eyebrow, but didn’t interrupt. “James is such a gentleman, and I know that he would never say anything that might hurt someone else just to save himself pain, so I know he would never say this to you, but, it’s pretty awful for him to have to see his kidnapper at school every day. I’m not really sure why you follow him around and try to talk to him so much either, though I’m sure you’re not trying to be awful. Girl to girl, it would probably just be best if you left him alone. I mean, I would never suggest you leave Hogwarts entirely, even though other people have been.” The smile never left the girl’s face. Mentally, Elena was about 80% sure this girl was so full of it it was running out of her ears, but all she could think for a moment was what if. What if James is hurting and not telling anyone. What if she just reminds him of everything that happened. However, whatever else this girl wanted, she was obviously jealous of something that didn’t even exist.

“Girl to girl, I’ll let you in on a secret. James isn’t much of a gentleman at all, bit of a whiner actually. Secondly, I’m sure you and James will be perfectly happy together for about the five minutes it always takes him to get bored of his girlfriends. Have a lovely evening.”

Elena pushed her way past the girl and gave up on her plan to head to the library. She hadn’t gone into the Forbidden Forest since she had gotten back because there had been nothing to get, no time consuming tasks for her father, no extra studying to learn dark arts. She found she missed the forest though. The sun had already set as she walked across the grounds, but the stars weren’t out quite yet. She could see her breath on every exhale but a warming charm was keeping her comfortable.

Stepping into the forest was like stepping into a cocoon. The air was heavier, the emptiness made every noise echo ten times as loudly as it should, and the trees blocked any of the remaining light from the sky. That stupid girl’s words were still running through her mind, bouncing around and around, battering at all the progress she had made over the last few weeks. In moments like these she wanted to just walk into the forest and never come out. Perhaps the centaurs could adopt her into the herd. She scoffed and levitated a small rock that she flicked lazily from side to side in the air in front of her.

She needed a break from all of this. From feeling like every time she closed her eyes all she would see was James contorted in pain from a cruciatus. From remembering how she felt like she was drowning as she fought against the spell to try to stop it. Elena’s hand began to shake and she dropped the rock. She stood still and stared at it there among the leaves.

 

The next day, Elena skipped all of her classes. She had never considered doing such a thing before, but she didn’t want to see anyone, and she didn’t want to leave her bed. She had told one of her dorm mates that she felt sick before they left and then spelled her curtains shut. A little while after lunch she snuck down to the kitchens and nicked some food. She wasn’t going to give herself more than one day to wallow in self-pity, but while she was, she was going to make it good. At least that was her excuse for taking an entire trifle and eating the whole thing that afternoon.

James found her quickly at breakfast the following day, she had never seen him up this early before.

“Where were you yesterday?” He asked, slipping into a seat at the Slytherin table next to her.

“I wasn’t feeling well so I stayed in bed.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? I was worried.”

Elena stabbed a piece of sausage. “Did I need your permission to have a lie in?”

James rolled his eyes. “That wasn’t what I was saying and you know it. It would just be nice if you let your friends know if you’re going to disappear for a day and a half. I couldn’t find you after dinner either.”

“I spent the entire summer having my movements tracked, I think I’ll pass on that now, thanks.” Elena didn’t want breakfast now. She didn’t know what she wanted.

“Merlin, Elena! I was just trying to show concern.”

“Then you could have left off with the interrogation and stalking bit,” she said before dropping her fork onto her plate. “Was there anything else you wanted?”

“I was just planning on having breakfast with a friend, but so far, I seem to have just offended her with every word out of my mouth.”

“Didn’t realize we were actually friends.” Elena regretted it as soon as it was out of her mouth, but she didn’t have a chance to take it back before James had slammed his hands down on the table and stood up.

“You really need to get over whatever has you acting like a jerk.” He left without waiting for a reply, and Elena found herself staring at a half eaten plate of food with a pathetic feeling of accomplishment. She was pretty sure James would give her a bit of space now, less sure that she hadn’t permanently ruined their friendship.

She had thought not seeing James every day would make it easier to put the past behind her, but instead she just felt alone. Scorpius had done his best to spend time with her, but she would push him to go see Rose, or avoid him entirely as well. The gossip among the other students only grew as she was suddenly no longer seen with James, or her other friends.


	23. Just Yell It!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to get out all of that pent up anger.

**James**

“You’ve been hard to track down,” said a voice, interrupting James from staring across the Great Lake. He couldn’t help but let out a small sigh when he realized it was Tiffany.

“I do my best,” he muttered. She sat down beside him and put on a pouty face.

“You’ve seemed super sad this week, I really thought you’d be feeling better since that Hunt girl wasn’t following you around any more.”

James looked at her confused. “What are you talking about?”

“We talked about it at the party a few weeks ago, you seemed uncomfortable with the topic, I’m sure it brings back bad memories for you, just like having to see her every day.”

“Why do you keep saying I shouldn’t have to see Elena? She is my friend.”

Tiffany smiled and winked at him. “You are so selfless, and that is so attractive, but don’t worry, I told her to back off. Somebody probably should have said something sooner to get her to leave you alone.”

When she leaned in to kiss him, again, he actually hexed her. It was just a sneezing hex, but it gave him enough time to scramble to his feet.

“I’m really hoping I misheard you, but did you say you had told her to leave me alone?” Tiffany had shifted to angry now.

“You hexed me!” She shrieked.

“What did you tell her?” He yelled back.

“I told that Slytherin cow that it must be AWFUL for you to have to see her stupid face every day after what she did to you, but I obviously shouldn’t have BOTHERED!”

James wanted to bury his head in his hands or just bash it into a tree. Bloody Elena and her bloody guilt.

“You stay away from her, and stay away from me. I cannot make it any more clear that I am NOT interested in you.”

“You are awful!” Tiffany screeched at him and ran off in a storm of tears. James took off for his dorm at a jog, he was going to track Elena down, and they were going to have this out. His original plan to just wait for her to approach him was probably not ever going work.

The map showed her in the library, so it was easy enough to storm in and find her. He walked straight over to her, but she didn’t even glance up until he had slammed the book she was reading shut.

“Out of the library! Mistreating the books! BOTH OF YOU OUT!” Yelled Ms. Tartleed, the librarian.

Elena stuffed her notes into her bag angrily and pushed past James to leave the library, but he didn’t let her get far.

“You’re not running off, we are going to talk.”

“Why?”

“Because you are an idiot and I should never have let this go on for as long as it has.”

Elena huffed, but she didn’t refuse as he grabbed her by the wrist and drug her towards and empty classroom. As soon as they were inside he slammed the door shut and threw up the strongest muffliato he could.

“I’ll start, since you don’t seem keen on telling me anything. Had a little chat with Tiffany today and she said that she had told you to stop talking to me. For a moment I was really confused as to why you would actually listen to her, but then I remember how you like to wallow in guilt.”

“Don’t act like I’m doing something wrong, don’t you dare!”

“Well you are wrong! Avoiding me is more bloody hurtful than actually being my friend. You don’t bring back bad memories for me every time I see your face no matter what everyone else says.”

“Well you do!” Elena yelled at him. “Every time I see you I remember the look on your face when I told you I was taking you back to my father. Every time I close my eyes I remember seeing you under the cruciatus and thinking for a moment that I was just going to have to watch you suffer.” She stopped, chest heaving as she gasped for breath. “I just wanted it to stop. I feel like I can’t breathe sometimes. I’ll wake up and I’ll feel cold and think he’s come back to life and I’m his again. I dream that he makes me kill you over and over and over again and I just want it all to stop!” Elena sat down heavily in a chair and James wished the floor would just open up and swallow him. How could he comfort her when he was part of what was upsetting her? He had had no idea, Merlin he was stupid.

“Elena you did more than anyone else could have to protect me.” He knelt down in front of her. “After everything that happened, knowing what I know now, if I had to go back I wouldn’t change a thing. I would choose it all over again just to save you from your father.” He grabbed her hand just like he had for that long, awful week in the hospital.

“I’m not saying you should just get over it, and if you need space all you have to do is ask. Please just don’t push me away like this. I care about you and I miss you when you aren’t around.” Elena tugged her hand gently away, her eyes red rimmed and vulnerable. He wanted to grab her a kiss her, just wrap her up in his arms and never let go, but he knew he really would lose her if he did that right now.

“I don’t know if I can...I don’t know what you want,” she said quietly, her eyes straying to his hand with a question in them.

“I’m not going anywhere, let’s just work on friends. Don’t worry about anything else.” He rubbed his hand down his face tiredly. "I have nightmares too you know, except it's always that I've woken up at home and I can't find you anywhere. Or that I'm at Hogwarts and no one remembers you but me. I keep waking up with this sick feeling that you're gone or still in danger and it's probably made me a little paranoid. When you didn't show up to any of your classes that day I just started to freak out a little bit even though I knew I was being  irrational."

Elena let out a little sigh. "I was being a brat, I'm sorry."

"I thought we'd be able to go back to 'normal' straight away," James admitted.

"My normal was being afraid every day. I don't know how to feel now."

James reached out and squeezed her hand briefly. "I guess we can both start over. I'll actually study this year instead of just attending parties and playing Quidditch."

Elena laughed and flicked his shoulder. "What will all the girls of Hogwarts do?"

James grimaced. "I'll pass the torch along to Albus."

"Scorpius keeps trying to convince me to study less this year, even Rose is trying to, which is really jarring coming from a Ravenclaw."

"Maybe, between the two of us, we can achieve some balance," James said with a grin. 


	24. Dances and Declarations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff. Fluff everywhere.

**Elena**

It was everywhere, giggling girls, stuttering boys, and the heady high of hormones. School dances turned Hogwarts into a nightmare. The year after the war had ended Headmaster McGonagall had instituted an annual Christmas Ball to be held the weekend before the holidays for all students in fourth year and above. Elena dodged another flying mistletoe, some idiot had charmed them to follow anyone who was caught underneath it until they received a kiss or announced loudly that they were uglier than a troll with a bad case of dragon pox.

“If I find the person who invented these flying mistletoe, I will use an unforgivable,” Elena said as Scorpius walked up beside her.

“I’ll help you bury the body,” he assured her without hesitation. “I’m pretty sure it was one of the Hufflepuff sixth years, they’ve been more smug looking than usual. Especially when one of them got that Ravenclaw Seeker that beat them at that last Quidditch game.”

Elena glared at a passing Hufflepuff just in case they had been involved. “One of the Slytherin boys actually asked me to the dance this morning.”

“Oh, who are you going with then?” Scorpius asked with a sudden, wide smile.

Elena looked at him as if he was crazy. “I said no!”

“Oh, was he ugly then? Or smelly?”

“I just don’t want to go! I have never gone to a school dance, and that is not changing.”

**Two hours later....**

Oh no, she had just said yes. She meant to say no, but he had startled her and smiled at her and given her the puppy dog eyes.

“I’ll pick you up at your dorm at eight then?”

Elena rolled her eyes. “We can just meet at the dance.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I can’t let my date walk to the dance by herself, I’d look like a right cad.”

Elena glared at him. “We are going as friends.”

“Of course,” he said with a cheeky grin before saluting her and walking off towards his next class. Elena shook her head and went to find Scorpius for Herbology. What had she done? When she turned around, she almost walked into him.

“Did I just hear what I think I heard?”

Elena swallowed nervously. “If you heard that Joshua Yellowtrout had his potion blow up in his face because he added eye of newt when he should have added liver, then yes.”

“What happened to ‘I have never gone to a school dance, and that is not changing’?” Scorpius asked doing a terrible impression of her with his hands on his hips and an imaginary flip of her hair.

“We’re just going as friends.”

Scorpius looked at her incredulously. “No, no. We are friends, and I tried to drag you to the dances every year so I wouldn’t have to ask some random girl I barely knew, and you always refused. James Potter walks up and flashes a smile and suddenly you’re attending a dance,” Scorpius stuttered to a stop. “Oh Merlin you like him! You like James Potter!”

Elena clapped her hand over his mouth. “Will you shut up! I do not like James Potter. I’m just trying to take your advice and be sociable. As usual, it is backfiring.”

Scorpius arguments were muffled by her hand, but she could see the disbelief in his eyes.

“No. Just no. I am going to this rubbish ball and I am not dancing with anyone. I am just going to sit there and it’s going to boring and awful, and I’m going to blame you when I have a horrible time. If you mention me liking anyone I will hex your tongue right out of your mouth.”

Scorpius had the nerve to start laughing at her. Elena glared at him and walked off with a huff. He laughed at her the entire walk to Herbology. He continued smirking at her as they repotted some mandrakes and Elena was sorely tempted to rip his earmuffs off.

That Friday came far too quickly. Elena wasn’t sure how to feel as she stood in front of the mirror in a long, sparkling silver dress that Rose had said made her eyes look like moonlight. The dress had a simple square neckline that didn’t dip too low and inch wide straps that framed her collarbones. It was fitted on the bodice, but loose and full from the waist down. The material itself was a sheer, watery silver covered with little sparkling jewels over a grey satin that was so dark, it was almost black. It really did look a bit like stars against the night sky. Elena had put her hair half up, soft curls framing her face. Rose had put something in it that made it look very glossy, especially in the soft lighting of the dorms.

Elena had never spent much time worrying about her appearance, she always made sure to appear put together of course, but looking pretty had never been a priority. Standing here now, she hoped, well, she hoped for things she knew shouldn’t matter. With a deep breath, she turned away from the mirror and cast a tempus, it was almost fifteen minutes after eight and she was hoping James wasn’t too irritated she had kept him waiting, but it was hard to gather up the courage to walk down there.

When she stepped out of the common room James was sitting on the floor staring at his shoes, but he looked up right away. And promptly choked.

“Are you alright?” She asked as he scrambled his feet.

“Yea, I’m just,” he cleared his throat and blinked a few times. “I thought maybe you weren’t coming, then you step out looking like that. It’s enough to throw any bloke for a loop.”

Elena laughed nervously. “Sorry to keep you waiting, I’m usually punctual, as you well know.”

“It was worth it, you are beautiful,” he said seriously. Elena pressed her lips together nervously, not really sure how to respond when he said it like that.

He held out his arm. “To the dance?”

Elena nodded and looped her arm into his. “You look very nice as well, it appears we match.”

He was wearing a muggle tux with a silver vest under a very nice set of dress robes.

James grinned. “I managed to get out of Rose that your dress was silver, but she refused to tell me more. Said something about maintaining the feminine mystique and the element of surprise. I can kinda see her point now.”

Elena smiled to herself, Rose had been a very good friend this year. It was new to have a friend who was a girl, but she was learning to appreciate it. Something about Rose made Elena feel better about giving in to girly things. She was intelligent and driven, something any Slytherin would respect, yet she wasn’t afraid to giggle over boys or get excited to attend a ball. Sometimes it was like looking in on a whole new world as she got to know Rose, but it was a good one, and she was more willing now to let Rose draw her into it as well.

Their arrival prompted whispering that swept across the entire ballroom, but Elena ignored it in favor of looking for Scorpius and the others. She spotted them just before Scorpius saw her, and had to struggle to not to laugh at the look on his face. He looked just as shocked as James had, but his eyes were also flickering back and forth between the two of them suspiciously.

“Took you two long enough to get here!” Announced Rose with a wink as they joined their group of friends. Elena knew her face had probably gone bright red at that comment. Fred slapped James on the back, and she risked a glance at him, only to see him grinning smugly. Merlin, what had she gotten herself into?

“I’ll get us some punch if you’d like Elena?” James asked turning towards her. She nodded and sat down in an empty chair next to Albus. He had come with a Hufflepuff girl, and introductions were quickly made. Scorpius sat down next to her and flicked her on the arm.

“If you were just coming as friends there was really no call for looking this lovely. You’re going to give the poor boy ideas.”

“You can blame your girlfriend for all of this. She picked out the dress.”

“In that case I won’t interfere, she’s smarter than me after all.”

“You are correct, she’s really too smart for you. I have no idea why she’s dating a dunce like you.”

“A mystery for the ages, but I’m not complaining,” he agreed with a smile. James returned with the punch then, and Scorpius stood up to let him have the seat next to her. The conversation flowed comfortably around her as everyone settled in at the table. At some point she realized James had slipped his arm around the back of her chair, but she couldn’t think of a reason to object. The couples slowly drifted off to the dance floor until just James, Elena, Scorpius and Rose were left. As the current song ended James stood and held his hand out to Elena.

“Will you dance with me?” He asked with a little bow. Elena could practically feel Scorpius eyes boring into the side of her head as their conversation from earlier that week replayed in her head, but she took his hand and stood.

“Sure,” she said quietly. Resolutely ignoring Scorpius, she let James lead her out onto the dance floor. As soon as they stepped out with the other couples he twirled her smoothly into a waltz. Of course he was a wonderful dancer, she thought to herself. His hand was gentle at her waist, but it was his eyes that pulled in all of her attention. He was staring directly into hers, no hesitancy or embarrassment at all. The song was soft and they danced slowly around the room as easily as if they had been dancing together for years. Elena barely noticed it when the song ended and another started since James just kept dancing. In this moment, she felt light and free, and she wasn’t in a hurry for it to end. As a third song ended, James let them slow to a stop and smiled.

“I think Scorpius would like to cut in,” he said quietly. Elena swallowed and nodded, finally breaking their eye contact. He placed her hand into Scorpius’ and walked away slowly with a backwards glance over his shoulder.

“You two looked pretty perfect out here together.”

“It was just dancing,” Elena objected.

“No, it really wasn’t,” Scorpius said seriously. “This is just dancing. Anyone looking at us would see two friends having a chat on the dance floor. You and James though? I’m pretty sure the entire school can see he is falling for you.”

“Don’t Scorpius. Right now, we are just friends and I can’t,” she paused to take a breath. “I just can’t think about that right now.”

Scorpius sighed, but didn’t push anymore. “I hope you are having fun tonight,” he said with a small smile.

“I think I am. The punch is quite good.”

Scorpus laughed and pushed her into a spin. She found herself handed off to Albus after the song ended, and it lifted her spirits quite a lot that they were able to be friends now. It was so much easier between them than she had originally hoped for. As that dance ended, Elena begged off any more dances to sit down for a few songs. Even the slow dances were tiring after a while. James joined her at the table with a refill on her drink.

“Rose was saying while you and Scorpius were dancing that he was going to come over for Christmas supper,” James remarked.

“Yes, he’s been excited about that.”

James nudged her knee with his. “Well? Are you coming with him?”

“The invitation was for Scorpius.”

“Then consider this your invitation. I’d like to see you.”

Elena fiddled with her cup while she thought it over. “I’d hate to make anyone uncomfortable if I was there.”

“You really won’t, I promise.”

“You just want an extra present, don’t you?” She teased, trying to lighten the mood again. She didn’t want to think about any of the reasons she was worried right now.

James laughed. “You’ve found me out. To be fair though, you’ll get a present too. It’s a win-win I think.”

They chatted for a few minutes longer until a fast jig came on and James jumped up insisting they dance again. He swung her around the dance floor and she found herself laughing as he pushed her into spin after spin until she stumbled and he had to catch her.

“I’m glad you haven’t run off in the middle any of our dance this time,” he said with a smirk.

“The night is still young,” she said with a smile.

 

\-------------------------

 

A small box wrapped in white paper with a large silver bow was set in her lap and James grinned nervously at her from across the room. She ran her thumb along the edge, but didn’t make a move to open it until she saw that James had been given her gift as well. She had found the most garish Gryffindor wrapping paper she could to cover the bulky box. It was bright red, covered in bright gold lions that roared menacingly at you every time you jostled the present and ineffectively tried to bite your fingers if you touched them. He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow and a smile on his face. She just shrugged, so he opened it carefully, trying not to rip any of the lions in half.

As he lifted the lid from the box he stared down in confusion, then looked up at her, absolutely incredulous. His mouth was hanging open as he continued to look between her and the contents of the box.

“How did you...how?”

“I know people,” she said with a soft smile.

“This isn’t going to be released for months,” he insisted.

“The rest aren’t going to be released, just this one. It’s the first broom, you can see Peddington’s signature on it.”

James pulled a sleek, golden broom out of the box Elena had put the undetectable extension charm on and ran his hands tenderly down the handle. The conversation in the room stopped as all the boys and Ginny Potter recognized what James had just received.

“I can’t believe I am actually holding a Fiendfyre. A first edition Fiendfyre.”

Ron might have actually started drooling as he leaned in for a closer look from his spot beside James. James stood abruptly and hauled Elena out of her chair to pull her into a hug.

“I can’t believe you managed this.”

Elena was a bit embarrassed to be hugging him like this in front of his entire family, but she returned the hug warmly, relieved that he liked the broom as much as she had hoped he would. He returned to his seat and most of the family gathered around him to look over the broom. Scorpius smirked at her before he joined them. Since the attention was away from her now, she thought it was probably the perfect time to open James gift.

Inside, there was a charm bracelet, a note, and three small vials of memories, each with a different color ribbon tied on. Elena picked up the note first.

 

**The bracelet I made because I know you worry. If anyone you care about is in danger, their charm will heat up. Just like the pendant you made Scorp, you could apparate straight to them.**

**The memories are a little different.**

**The one with the green ribbon is of the moment when I first realized I trusted you.**

**The one with the blue ribbon is every day I thought you might not wake up.**

**The one with the red ribbon are the moments you stole my breath.**

**The good with the bad, but ending in hope I think. I understand there are things between us that you can’t talk about yet, just know that I will be here.**

**If you ever start to doubt, these can be your reminders.**

Elena stared down into the box and tried not to cry, but she could feel her breath coming in those tiny little hitches that always ended in sobbing. She placed the note back in the box gently and closed the lid. Her hands were shaking, and her heart was beating out of her chest.

She caught James eye as she stood, and he looked worried, but she managed a smile and mouthed I’ll be right back. She just needed a moment, so she slipped quietly from the room and went to hide in the kitchen. As soon as she was alone she opened the box and read the note again before she lifted the charm bracelet from the box. It was delicate and cool in her hand as she touched each of the charms in turn. Scorpius, Rose, Albus, Draco, and James. Each charm held nothing more than their initials on a small silver disk, it was the simple kind of jewelry she favored.

“Want me to put it on you?” She heard James ask from the doorway, startling her into almost dropping it. Still unable to speak, she nodded.

“I’m sorry if I upset you,” he said quietly.

“No, you’ve...” She took a deep breath as she fought against tears again. “You are too good to me James Potter.”

“Impossible,” he replied without hesitation.

 

 


	25. All I Do is Win, Win, Win

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winners deserve a prize right?

**James**

The wind was stinging his eyes, and James knew he was going almost recklessly fast, but there was no way he could let up when he was this close to the snitch. The Ravenclaw seeker was neck and neck with him until the snitch shot up. James was able to pull his broom up quickly enough to follow it as it threatened to disappear into the sky, but the other seeker was falling behind now. James flattened himself against the broom and let it accelerate faster after the little snitch. He almost missed the grumble of the bludger headed for him, but he was able to dodge at the last moment. He could see Fred hitting it back down out of the corner of his eye, and for one breathless moment he thought he had lost track of the snitch, but then, there it was. He shot back down after it, following the twisting chase it led him on above the stands. The other seeker had caught back up to him now and they were both reaching out for the snitch. James laid against his broom and lunged for the snitch just as the ravenclaw seeker’s fingertips brushed against it. His hand closed around it and he pulled up and around in a complicated twist letting out a whoop of victory. He could hear the cheers erupt from the stands on the Gryffindor side and he was immediately surrounded by his teammates as he held the snitch up in the air.

As he landed, he looked for Elena and saw her walking out slowly behind his family onto the pitch. Pushing his way through his teammates, he accepted quick hugs from his mum and dad before scooping her up in a hug and twirling her around.

“We won!”

She laughed and braced her hands on his shoulders. “I saw, it was brilliant!”

The smile on her face was breathtaking, and it took every bit of James self control to not kiss her there in front of everyone. He set her down and was immediately caught up in another hug from Fred.

“James, there were scouts here from Puddlemere United and the Wimbourne Wasps! And you played like a bloody genius!”

“Are you serious?” James asked. He looked over and saw his mother chatting with one of the scouts. Elena started to move away like she was going to leave, so he grabbed her hand and just held on. “I don’t think this year could have ended better.”

She let her hand relax in his grip and smiled. “I don’t know, Slytherin winning the house cup would have been pretty good. Perhaps I should have sabotaged you to keep your house from taking the cup.”

James laughed. “I’m almost surprised you didn’t, you can be vicious when you are being competitive, as I learned well having those seeker games with you. That’s probably the only reason I was able to win today though, no one has ever challenged me like you do.”

Elena started to say something, but was interrupted when the scout and his mother walked over to be introduced.

 

That night, the end of year party was full of ecstatic Gryffindors. The alcohol was flowing, the music was playing, and everything was pretty much perfect. After about thirty minutes, James began to wonder if Elena was going to show up, but he had learned over the past few months that she was almost always late to things like parties, because the idea of them stressed her out, but that if she said she would be there, she would.

It was still a relief to see her walk through the door. James had to assume Rose had taken her shopping sometime during the last break, because she walked in wearing black muggle jeans and a red tank top that almost made him trip over himself as he walked over to greet her. She’d done something to her hair that made it looked all wavy and shiny.

“It’s about time you showed up, I thought I was going to have to party alone all night.”

Elena looked pointedly around the room. “Right, so very alone.”

James grinned and draped his arm around her shoulders. “If I dance with you this time will you storm off again?”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “And leave you to the mercy of Tiffany? I think not,” she said nodding over his shoulder. He looked behind him to see her shooting glares in their direction before flipping her hair over her shoulder and looking away in a clear dismissal.

“She is terrifying,” he agreed. The rest of their group of friends joined them and they passed around a few drinks. Scorpius and Rose had apparently already made plans to study together after school, both of them gaining entry into a Healing research program. They were the only two with definite plans for after school though. James tugged Elena away after a few minutes and led her out to the dance floor. She rolled her eyes, but didn’t resist. This was very different from the waltzing at the Christmas Ball, but they still moved together well. Albus and his girlfriend joined them about halfway through the song, and James was thrilled to see Elena laughing and enjoying herself. It was so easy to pull her close when she was like this. She didn’t push him away, she just leaned against him and let him take the lead. The music stayed upbeat the whole night and they danced until they were exhausted, but neither of them drinking anywhere near enough to get drunk. James wanted to remember everything clearly.

As the party wound down and people began leaving James pulled her away towards the exit.

“Why are we leaving?” She asked as she let him pull her along.

“I have a sudden urge to fly,” he said with a cheeky grin. He left her waiting in the Gryffindor common room while he ran up to the dorm to grab his broom.

“It’s so very red in here,” she commented when he came back down.

“Yes, and you match the decor today.”

“Rose said you liked the color red.”

“I do,” he said looking her outfit over again before dragging her back out of the dorm and down to the Quidditch pitch.

“What am I supposed to fly?” She asked as they passed by the broomshed without stopping.

“You are going to fly with me,” he said.

“Are you out of your mind? No I’m not!” She exclaimed looking at him like he was crazy.

“Me and my Dad used to do it all the time when I was a kid, it’s perfectly safe.”

Elena still looked extremely skeptical, but when he handed her the broom, she hopped on without any more argument. He crawled up behind her carefully and wrapped his left arm securely around her waist before taking them up in a wide, slow spiral. This close, he could smell the vanilla scent of her shampoo as her hair brushed against his face.

“The stars are bright tonight,” she said quietly. He looked up into the perfectly clear sky and slowed their movement even more. Tonight was a night for slow and quiet in the starlight.

“When I was a kid I always thought I would try to see how close I could get to the stars as soon as I got my first broom. My dad took me up one night and I realized that no matter how high we flew, we never seemed to get any closer.”

“They’re still beautiful.”

“Yea, they are,” he agreed lacing their fingers together at her waist. She leaned her head back onto his shoulder and let out a soft sigh.

 

**Elena**

Dinner with the Malfoys had finished about a half hour before Elena led James out into the extensive gardens for a walk. She led him to a bench with a good view of the sky and the flowers which were in full bloom, a gentle breeze was stirring up their perfume. It had been one of those perfect days that had bled into a wonderfully cool night.

“I can’t believe we are done with our NEWTS. It seems like we’ve been at Hogwarts forever.”

Elena nodded and looked up at the night sky. “School seems like a blur now, except for this past year.” She let out a sigh. “Now comes the hard part, making something of ourselves and all that rot. Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?”

“Who says I’m planning on growing up?”

Elena poked him in the side. “You had your chance to die young and weren’t too keen on the option if I remember correctly, so you have no choice.”

“I have that quidditch offer, and I got a letter today offering an apprenticeship as a cursebreaker.” James stuck his hands in his pockets with a sigh, then took them back out again and ran them over his face. “I don’t know what I want to do yet, it doesn’t feel like there is a choice that is right, not with this,” James said before turning towards her. “I’ve been thinking about all this; about what I want next, and what my life should be. I know there are things that we just haven’t talked about, and I’ve wanted to give you time and not push. I just think, or at least I hope that you’re ready now.”  

James cleared his throat nervously before beginning again. “The only thing that I know for sure is that I want to see you every day. You’re the first person I think of when I wake up and I don’t want to have to tell you goodbye every night. Whatever else happens, I want you there. I want to be with you.” James swallowed nervously as reached slowly towards her, his knuckles brushing gently against her cheek. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

Elena nodded, and then he was there, lips pressed firmly against hers as his hands slid into her hair. He pulled away after a moment, but she chased after his mouth and kissed him again. Her heart was pounding so loudly she could hear it. All the fear that had been weighing so heavily on her concerning James was just gone. This wasn’t something to be afraid of, not with him.

“I don’t know how you can trust me after everything I’ve done. I never understood why you were so determined to be my friend after we got back to school,” she said shakily.

“I trust you,” he said firmly. “I’ve never met anyone who challenged me like you did. You make me want to be better. When we’re together feel like I can take on the world.”

Elena laughed and hid her face in his shoulder. “You make me feel like I can be good, like I’m worth something.”

He pulled her into a hug. “You are worth everything to me.”

 


	26. All That Epilogue Goodness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The future is bright.

**Elena**

Elena dodged a spell that shot out of the dark mist that had flowed out of the strange artifact she had been called in to remove from a cave in a muggle area. She threw out Lumos Maxima, but it just went straight through the mist with no effect. A Ventus jinx hit the mist with a strong blast of wind, but it reformed quickly. Another spell shot out from the mist, this one hitting way too close for comfort, so Elena stopped thinking and just acted. She summoned a firestorm around the mist, the sudden blast of heat whipping her hair up around her face. A high pitched shriek sounded from deep inside the mist, but it began to waver. Elena tightened the circle of flame with a smile on her face and the mist slowly, but surely dissipated. The next step in the process needed a steady hand, but the worst danger was over. Elena warded the object and carefully cast the spells needed to prepare it for the potions she had created with the help of Hermione Weasley. Hermione’s experience destroying the horcruxes had been priceless when they began developing a potion that could basically destroy any dark artifact with the right spells. Working with her, and Rose, on the development of the potion had been a wonderful time.

This work was exhilarating and satisfying. Rose had suggested the Anti Dark Arts consultant idea, and Elena had been skeptical at first, but she had soon realized how big a need there was for it. With the stigma dark arts held these days, that meant few were willing to study it to the extent needed to take down curses and dark artifacts like the ones she dealt with every day. She already had the knowledge, and more hands on experience than she wanted to think about, so she was perfect for the job. She was also able to set her own schedule, except for a few emergencies, which didn't come up that often, allowing her to attend James' Quidditch games and make sure they always had enough time together.

It took two apparitions to get back home and she was exhausted and dirty, but she had a box with a dead artifact in it, so it was worth it. As she walked inside she could smell stew and smiled to herself.

“I am so hungry!” She shouted to James as she walked through the door.

“You better be! I’ve been slaving away over this stew for hours!”

“Your mum came over to help you didn’t she?” Elena asked suspiciously when she walked into the kitchen to find James sitting at the table reading, the kitchen sparklingly clean, and a pot gently simmering on the stove. James laughed and hopped up to give her a hug and a kiss.

“I’m assuming things went well?”

“For the most part, this was a nasty piece of work.”

“You’re not hurt, right?” He asked stepping back to look her over again.

“Some bumps and bruises, but nothing bad. How was practice today?”

“Terrible,” he said with a moan. “Donahue dropped the Quaffle so many times the captain checked to make sure his hands hadn’t been hexed into sticks of butter and one of our beaters hit himself in the face with a bat.” He buried his face in her shoulder when she pulled him into a hug. “We’re professional Quidditch players. It was embarrassing.”

Elena laughed. “I’m sure everyone was just having a bad day, the team is going to have a great season, you’ll see.”

“The captain might kill us first. He was discussing replacing us all with erumpets at one point.”

“Well, if they replace you with an erumpet, you can just help me on my cases full time. I’ll pay you two galleons a week.”

James looked at her outraged. “I am a wildly famous Quidditch player, I don’t get out of bed for less than three galleons!”

Their argument quickly devolved into a tickle fight and shouting match concerning minimum wage for erumpets and Quidditch players made of butter.

___________

There was laughter and children shrieking as Elena followed James into the Potter’s house. Scorpius and Rose were already there, and Rose ran up for her hug.

“So glad you two finally made it! You’re so late!” She complained.

Elena scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, we are barely fifteen minutes late.”

There were many hugs to give out with all of the Potters and Weasley's in one place, but they were able to finally make their way inside and drop off the food they had brought (courtesy of a lovely house elf Elena had insisted they employ). With the amount of hungry boys present, it wasn’t long before dinner was laid out and everyone was arranged around the huge table. Harry was at the head of the table, hand in hand with Ginny and Elena couldn’t help a small smile seeing everyone gathered around him like this. This was family, and it was more than she ever thought she would get. Dinner was loud and happy with plenty of fights over rolls and who had the gravy. As everyone finished up and there was some talk about dessert, James pushed his chair back and stood up to get the family’s attention.

“I, uh, suppose we have a bit of an announcement,” he started. The whole table feel completely silent, and Elena met Scorpius’ wide eyed gaze with a smile. “Elena is pregnant, we’re going to be parents!”

The screaming that ensued reached never before heard levels. Elena was almost knocked out of her chair as Scorpius, Rose, and Albus rushed around the table to attempt to all hug her at once.

“You told me not two months ago that you two wanted to wait a few more years for kids!” Ginny said slapping James on the arm before pulling him into a hug with happy tears in her eyes.

“We were a bit surprised to be honest, but we couldn’t be happier.”

 

**James**

**9 Months later**

The labor drug on for almost twelve hours, and James had never been so nervous in his life. Elena stayed pretty calm the whole time, but every contraction made James feel like a helpless lump. It was when he heard the first cry that he remembered why they had done this. Watching the Healer lay their first child down on Elena’s chest was a surreal moment. He placed a gentle hand on the baby’s back as Elena looked up at him with joy in her eyes.

“Here, hold her,” she said lifting her to him.

James was holding a tiny baby girl, his baby girl. Elena was looking up at him from the bed, her cheeks still flushed from the birth, and he knew he had never seen her happier. She was radiant and his heart was so full of happiness he didn’t know if it could hold it all.

“Let’s call her Risa, it means laughter. I found it last night while you were sleeping.”

Elena’s face softened. “Risa is pretty, I like it.”

 

They settled in at home with the baby quickly, their pantry overflowing with food from their families and the Quidditch team. He found that his new favorite activity was watching Elena and the baby sleep. Risa wasn’t a fussy baby, but she preferred to be held, and for now at least that was all either of them wanted to do. He had just finished the charm for Elena’s bracelet, he hadn’t wanted to take the time away from his girls to make it, but he knew Elena would be restless until it was done.

He found them asleep in a rocking chair in the nursery and paused in the doorway for a moment, just to look. The sun was just rising, casting a soft light around the nursery that made Risa’s soft baby hair glow. Elena looked happy even in sleep. He shook her awake gently and handed her the charm.

“Can you hook it on?” She asked quietly as she carefully switched Risa to her other arm and held out her wrist. James snapped it into place right next to his own charm and pressed a quick kiss to the palm of her hand.

“This is going to be wonderful.”

“Yes, yes it is,” she said as they both looked down at their sleeping little girl. The future was bright.

  


The End

 

 


End file.
